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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No.. 

ShellB-Ll^rL 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



The Truth that Saves 



AND 



HOW TO PRESENT IT. 



BY 



REV. J. A. R. DICKSON, B.D., Ph.D., 

PASTOR OF CENTRAL PRESBYTERTAN CHURCH, 
GALT, ONT. 

AUTHOR OF " WORKING FOR JESUS," " HOW WE ARE 
SAVED," ETC. 



AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

IO EAST 23d STREET, NEW YORK. 



m 



26 1397 





\Zj\ 






COPYRIGHT, 1897, 
BY AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



GONTRNTS. 



Preface. 

I. THE DESIRE FOR FRUIT page 7 

II. DIFFERENT KINDS OF TRUTHS IN THE 

WORD 15 

III. THE TRUTH THAT SAVES 21 

Its Three Elements: 

(1) Christ's Death 24 

(2) Christ's Burial 30 

(3) Christ's Resurrection 36 

IV. SUBSTITUTES FOR THE GOSPEL 50 

(1) Calls to Faith _~ 50 

(2) Invitations to Christ 51 

(3) A Conditioned Salvation 54 

(4) The Gospel in its Widest Sense 57 

(5) Offers of Salvation _ .-- 60 

V. PREPARATION FOR THE RECEPTION 

OF SAVING TRUTH- 67 

VI. THE TRUTH MADE EFFECTUAL TO SAL- 
VATION 81 



4 CONTENTS. 

VII. HOW TO PRESENT THE GOSPEL ... .._. 94 

(1) Intelligently 94 

(2) Largely .... 99 

(3) Lovingly 105 

(4) Livingly no 

(5) Prayerfully 114 

(6) Scripturally _- _ 118 

(7) With the Holy Ghost — 124 

VIII. THE JOY OF PREACHING THE TRUTH 

THAT SAVES 132 



PREFACE. 

» 

This little book is respectfully dedicated to all 
workers in the Spiritual Harvest, as a humble 
contribution of help in that service. May the 
Lord accompany it with his blessing ! The theme 
is one that cannot become old and outgrown. It 
must ever, so long as a soul is to be saved, pos- 
sess a deep and living interest. And in these 
days of earnest thought and increasing inquiry in 
reference to religious matters, the truth that should 
be specially preached for conversion is the grand 
question in many minds. And human wisdom is 
fruitful in fancies that fall far short of the truth. 
We need therefore to see clearly the saving truth 
of the Word, that which is specially used to bring 
rest to the heart and peace to the conscience and 
joy to the soul. To present this truth is the ob- 
ject of the following pages. And if what is writ- 
ten here should be used of God to give a hint to 
any earnestly seeking light ; or help any, weary 
with striving with other means, to return to the 
simplicity of truth as it is in Jesus ; or to stir up 
any to fresh devotion to the glorious gospel of 
the grace of God, the writer will be amply re- 
warded, and God shall have all the praise. 



THE 

TRUTH THAT SAVES. 



I. THE DESIRE FOR FRUIT. 

The subject these words introduce to our con- 
sideration is one of the most interesting and im- 
portant that can engage our attention, whether 
we are called to the public proclamation of the 
Truth or to its private ministry. It regards the 
right performance of one of our highest and 
holiest duties, for the heavenly edict has gone 
forth : " Let him that heareth say, come I" And 
all who do their duty in this spiritual service, like 
all who labor in any other sphere, must be, in 
some measure, anxious about the results of their 
work ; they must be concerned to know, if it be 
possible, how it prospers, what blessing crowns it. 
He who has sown seed upon the soil looks for a 
harvest, and he who has spoken the word, and 
watered it by prayer for the quickening of the 
Holy Ghost, expects a return. 

What can be more discouraging than to labor 



8 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

long and see no fruit appear ? What can be more 
troublesome than to have grave doubts arising 
ever and anon in the mind, like the ghosts of bur- 
ied enemies, whose language is that there is a 
want of fitness, appropriateness, adaptation in 
our work ? What can be more harassing than to 
be continually missing the mark or falling short 
of the end ? What can be so bitter an ingredient 
in the bitterness of life as want of success, and 
especially want of success in such a work as the 
winning of souls ? What can so exercise and ex- 
haust the living forces of the Spirit ? When John 
Howe was chaplain to Oliver Cromwell at White- 
hall, he became weary of the turmoil and pomp of 
the palace, and wrote to his dear and honored 
brother Richard Baxter, telling him how much he 
longed to be back again to his beloved work at 
Torrington. "I have devoted myself, he said, 
to serve God in the work of the ministry, and how 
can I wait the pleasure of hearing their cries and 
complaints who may come to me under convic- 
tions/' 

Andrew A. Bonar, whose Diary and Letters 
are for a Christian worker a constant inspiration 
and help, is discovered to us in both, as ever on 
the outlook for conversions, as is evidenced by 
observations like these: "I do not know this 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 9 

last season of one soul awakened in this place di- 
rectly from my preaching/' ''To-night found a 
letter from Edinburgh from a soul that got bless- 
ing under the sermon in preaching which I had 
lost my freedom. Thus kind and sovereign is 
God/' 

" Heard of blessing attending my preaching in 
Huntly many years ago, in the case of two young 
men. 'Bless the Lord, O my soul V 

David Brainerd kept a keen eye upon the pagan 
Indians to whom he preached, to note every hope- 
ful indication of a change in them. He felt the 
burden of souls. How his heart would throb as 
he penned these sentences touching the Indians 
at Crossweeksung : " When I parted from them, 
one told me, with many tears, ' she wished God 
would change her heart ;' another that ' she wanted 
to find Christ ;' and an old man who had been 
one of their chiefs wept bitterly with concern for 
his soul. ,, That would be to him like water 
to the thirsty, and as day-dawn after a long weary 
night ! Oh, how it would refresh him ! Another 
passage may be given as more fully illustrating 
his desire to discover the souls of those whom he 
addressed turning to the Lord : "Discoursed to 
a number of my people in one of their houses in 
a more private manner. Inquired particularly 



IO THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

into their spiritual states, in order to see what im- 
pressions they were under. Laid before them the 
marks of a regenerate, as well as of an unregener- 
ate state ; and endeavored to suit and direct my 
discourse to them severally according as I appre- 
hended their states to be. There were a consid- 
erable number gathered together before I finished 
my discourse, and several seemed much affected 
while I was urging the necessity and infinite im- 
portance of getting into a renewed state. I find 
particular and close dealing with souls in private 
is often very successful." 

Dr. Edward Payson of Portland was a kindred 
spirit. His biographer tells us : "He loved his 
work ; when not exhausted by fatigue or de- 
pressed by illness, he was specially fond of the 
exercise of preaching — so much so, that he con- 
sidered it no favor for a wayfaring brother to 
offer to supply his place, gratuitously, on a Sab- 
bath. He felt, to use his own comparison, about 
as much obliged for such an offer, as he should 
to a man for proposing to eat up a good dinner 
prepared for himself, when he was half starved. 
In preparing for the pulpit, it was uniformly his 
object to introduce so much of the grand truths 
of the gospel into every discourse, that a person 
who had never heard a sermon before, and should 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 1 1 

never hear another, might learn from it what 
was essential to salvation. " How grandly does 
that speak out his desire to save some ! 

Samuel Rutherford in his precious letters, that 
smell of myrrh and cassia, writes in this way 
from "Christ's Palace in Aberdeen :" "It were 
my heaven, till I come home, even to spend this 
life in gathering some home to Christ. " To his 
parishioners at Anwoth, he writes, "I long ex- 
ceedingly to hear of your on-going and advance- 
ment in your journey to the kingdom of God. 
My only joy out of heaven is to hear that the seed 
of God sown among you is growing and coming 
to an harvest ; for I ceased not, while I was 
among you, in season and out of season, (accord- 
ing to the measure of grace given unto me) to 
warn and stir up your minds ; and I am free 
from the blood of all men ; for I have communi- 
cated to you the whole counsel of God/' How 
he yearned over his people was seen not only 
while he preached to them, but afterwards in his 
imprisonment when he wrote to them. He was 
one of those deep experimental divines whom we 
prize so highly, whose value is beyond all price, 
because they open up our way into the deep 
things of God. These may be regarded as repre- 
senting the entire host of faithful men who in the 



1 2 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

providence of God have been called to preach 
the gospel. Like the great apostle of the Gen- 
tiles they desire to "save some/' (Rom. 2 : 14) 
and "have some fruit" (Rom. 1:13) among 
those to whom their message comes. 

There is a soothing opiate that many take to- 
day to give ease from the troublesome pain which 
comes of seeing no fruit ; it is dispensed in this 
form : "Duty is ours, results are God's." That 
is true, but it evidently carries a very limited 
sense in the word "duty" if it leaves out all 
concern for the success of the Word in the soul of 
the hearer. And especially since the want of 
success, the lack of results, may be the legitimate 
outcome of an imperfectly presented gospel. 
Truth may be preached, but not the truth that 
saves ; and that being the case conversions will 
be few and far between. We are entitled to look 
for the salvation of those to whom the gospel is 
proclaimed. Our Lord said to his apostles : "Ye 
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and 
ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth 
fruit, and that your fruit should remain/' John 
15:16. John says in his third epistle, vers. 2-4, 
"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou 
mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul 
prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 1 3 

brethren came and testified of the truth that is in 
thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have 
no greater joy than to hear that my children walk 
in the truth/' 

Paul writing to the Romans makes this ac- 
knowledgment : "Now I would not have you ig- 
norant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to 
come unto you, (but was let hitherto) that I 
might have some fruit among you also, even as 
among other Gentiles/ ' Rom. 1 .-13. How 
deeply he is touched by the defection of the vola- 
tile Galatians ! "Oh, foolish Galatians, who 
hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey 
the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath 
been evidently set forth crucified among you ? 
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the 
Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing 
of faith ? Are ye so foolish ? Having begun in 
the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh ? 
Have ye suffered so many things in vain ? if it be 
yet in vain/' It is just as reasonable to look for 
fruit to accompany and crown the preached word, 
as it is for a fisherman to expect a draught of 
fishes, or a farmer a crop of grain, or a miner an 
explosion, when the proper means have been used 
to secure the result. The very form of the gospel 
statement involves this: "Believe on the Lord 



14 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 



Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" The proc- 
lamation of the gospel is for the accomplishment 
of this specific end, and not to look for it is un- 
belief. It is a wilful disregard to the plainest 
statement of the Word — which ought to fill the 
soul with strong expectation, so that it will watch 
and wish and pray for the result. 

In the attractive and quickening memoir of 
Robert Murray McCheyne the sainted author ob- 
serves : "In the care of a faithful ministry, suc- 
cess is the rule — want of it, the exception/ ' And 
a greater than he has said : " He that goeth forth 
and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubt- 
less come again with rejoicing, bringing his 
sheaves with him." 

It is of this sacred fruit, this soul-winning, this 
harvest home from the spiritual field that we would 
now speak as plainly and pointedly as possible. 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 15 



II DIFFERENT KINDS OF TRUTHS IN 
THE WORD. 

Were we building to-day a house for ourselves 
to dwell in, or a palace in which a king might hold 
his state, we would gather together all kinds of 
stones. They would all be stones, but suitable 
for widely different services. The large blocks of 
rough rubble would be placed in the foundations, 
the finely polished stones would adorn the cor- 
ners, the hewn stones would fill in the blind walls, 
while noble slabs, well trimmed, and perhaps 
bearing some lovely carving, would be used as 
lintels, and the choicest bits, of clean grain and 
beautiful color, would occupy the place of mul- 
lion bars, dividing the windows into convenient 
spaces for the light. Others might be employed 
for the ascending steps, and others for the out- 
spread floor to bear the patter of the feet of many 
generations. As it is with the stones in their ser- 
vice in building a human habitation, so it is with 
the truths which are found in the treasure-house 
of God's word. Each has its own mission. Each 
has its own special duty in the building up of 
human character and in the working out of human 



16 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

destiny. They do not contradict and confound 
one another, they rather conspire together to 
reach the great result, a new creation in Christ 
Jesus, a new life, with a new song, a new hope, 
and new motives that rejoice in the living force 
and gracious urgency of the truths as they speak 
out God's thought and express God's feeling. 

God has conferred two great gifts on the world: 
the word of Revelation, for "all Scripture is given 
by inspiration of God;" and the Word of Promise, 
who was in the beginning with God, and whom, 
when the fulness of time was come, God sent 
forth, made of a woman, made under the law, to 
redeem them that were under the law, that they 
might receive the adoption of sons. This re- 
demptive work having been accomplished, now 
the word of Revelation contains all that concerns 
the Word of Promise. Indeed, the Word of 
Promise is embalmed and preserved in the word 
of Revelation. In it his preexistence with the 
Father, his miraculous conception, his lowly birth, 
his life of human, conditions, his work revealing 
his deity, his vicarious death, with all their attend- 
ant circumstances, with the prophecies in type 
and symbol and song that went before upon him, 
are all conserved with the glowing vividness and 
reality of one of Titian's pictures, so that we may 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. i j 

say with Count Anhault that "the whole Scrip- 
tures are but the swaddling bands of the child 
Jesus/' 

But the word of Revelation that brings to our 
knowledge the life and love and labor of the 
Lord Jesus Christ is a large and comprehensive 
word, with many purposes to serve, many ends to 
secure. As in the materia medica of the physician 
there are stimulants that excite vital action, seda- 
tives that soothe and assuage pain, tonics that 
increase strength and give vigor to the system, 
restoratives that renew life, and prophylactics 
that ward off disease, and many other potions 
that have each their independent sphere and dis- 
tinct work, so it is in the materia medica of the 
spiritual physician. There are truths that are 
suitable to every condition of heart and soul, 
truths that quicken the soul into spiritual con- 
sciousness, truths that inspire or incite faith, 
truths that comfort, truths that caution, truths 
that guide, truths that bear high hopes, truths 
that unveil God and heaven and the hereafter, 
truths that save. Every truth, like every seed, is 
a truth "after his kind." It has something dis- 
tinctive and peculiar, both in itself and in its 
sphere, and in its action. And to distinguish be- 
tween these is, according to the apostle's declara- 

2 



l8 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

tion, "rightly to divide the word of truth ;" and 
to apply them with proper discrimination to suit- 
able cases is to "show thyself approved unto 
God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. " 

The word of God not only opens the way of 
life to man, it also defines it and provides for it, 
till he reaches the goal, the city which hath foun- 
dations, whose builder and maker is God. The 
word of God is not simply for conversion, it is 
for the life that conversion leads a man into, with 
all its vast and varied endowments. It is to cheer 
the disconsolate, to encourage the fearful and the 
faltering, to strengthen the weak, to inspire the 
despairing and the hopeless to whom life loses 
all its bright, sweet life, to support the strong; 
in one word, it is so to enfold man with its mul- 
tiform ministries as that it shall meet all the expe- 
riences of human life, and bring them all into 
conformity with God's will. "All Scripture is 
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
tion in righteousness ; that the man of God may 
be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works." 

The truth being thus varied in its matter and 
in its design, it is our duty to select that part of 
it which God has appointed unto the salvation of 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 



19 



the soul. Or, speaking with greater accuracy — 
for salvation spans man's widest horizon and com- 
passes his entire existence — the conversion of the 
soul from darkness to light and from the power 
of Satan unto God. Dr. Lyman Beecher wrote 
to his daughter Catherine on this point, " God 
acts by your means in proportion as they are 
wisely adapted ; and you will bring the sinner to 
submit by pressing the reasons and shedding light, 
light, light, sooner than if you merely reiterated, 
submit, submit, submit/' Dr. Beecher' s position 
was as he himself announces it : "God governs 
mind by motive and not by force." And that is 
in accord with Paul's words, "Now then we are 
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did be- 
seech you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, 
be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made 
him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in 
him." Again he says, "Knowing the terror of 
the Lord, we persuade men." 

Duncan Matheson, the Scottish evangelist, 
speaking of a work of grace in and around Aber- 
deen, says, "The truth that above all others 
seems to be owned is — 'You are lost. A Saviour 
has been provided. It is your duty to accept 
him now.' Ruin by the fall, righteousness by 



20 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

Christ, and regeneration only by the Holy Ghost, 
are the leading truths in every address/' 

Here is seen the wisdom of the Christian 
worker, in the adaptation of the means he uses 
to the end he seeks to attain. How attractively 
this shines out from this simple word in Acts 
8:5,8, "Then Philip went down to the city of 
Samaria, and preached Christ unto them." "And 
there was great joy in that city." 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 2 \ 



III. THE TRUTH THAT SA VES. 

"The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation 
to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and 
also to the Greek." It is the divine provision 
for the deep spiritual need of man. In the New 
Testament "the Gospel " has notable descriptive 
words added to it, qualifying it, such as "the 
Gospel of God," Rom. i, "the Gospel of the 
grace of God," Acts 20 : 24, "the Gospel of your 
salvation,'' Eph. 1:13, "the Gospel of Christ," 
Rom. 1 : 6. Each of these descriptive words 
casts a ray of light upon the one fact, the great 
central fact of which they all speak. 

It is the Gospel of God, because it originates 
with God, and bears the stamp of his character 
on its face, for God is love. It tells us of God's 
great love in giving his only-begotten and well- 
beloved Son to die in the room of the sinner — 
a love so inconceivable by us, that the door to 
the highest flights of our imagination and the 
widest and grandest excursions of our thought, is 
opened by the word "so." "God so loved the 
world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that 



22 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

whosoever believeth in him should not perish but 
have everlasting life. " Who can scale the heights 
or fathom the depths of the little particle " so " ? 
As Charles Wesley has so sweetly and so truly 
sung : 

" God only knows the love of God- 
Stronger his love than death or hell ; 
Its riches are unsearchable ; 

The first-born sons of light 
Desire in vain its depths to see : 
They cannot reach the mystery, 
The length and breadth and height." 

It is the Gospel of the grace of God, because it 
proceeds from the free and unmerited mercy and 
compassion of God toward the guilty sons of men 
who are sunk in misery and doubly condemned ; 
condemned by the holy law, and also by their 
own consciences. He pardoneth iniquity and 
passeth by transgressions. He is "The Lord, 
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suf- 
fering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, 
transgression and sin, and that will by no means 
clear the guilty/ ' 

It is the Gospel of our Salvation, because its 
object is the salvation of the soul. It sets the 
prisoner free, it justifies the guilty, it reconciles 
us to God. It restores man to the fellowship of 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 



23 



God with all its ineffable joys. It makes him a 
son of God, and therefore an heir of God, and a 
joint-heir with Jesus Christ. Salvation truly be- 
gun is always gloriously finished. <c He who 
hath begun a good work in you will perform it 
until the day of Jesus Christ/ ' Phil. 1:6. "I 
give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never 
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of 
my hand/'' John 10 : 28. 

It is the Gospel of Christ, because Christ is the 
One who works out the will of God. He is the 
mediator of the new covenant. He made recon- 
ciliation for the sins of the people. He trod the 
wine-press alone, and of the people there was 
none with him. He is the Lamb of God who 
taketh away the sin of the world. 

Now, what is the gospel of Christ ? Gospel is the 
Anglo-Saxon god, i. e., good, and spell, i. e. tidings 
or news. Good tidings. The gospel of Christ, 
therefore, is good tidings about Christ. When 
the angel announced the birth of Christ to the 
shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night, 
near Bethlehem, he said, "Behold, I bring you 
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all 
people. For unto you is born this day, in the 
city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the 
Lord." The gospel was that Christ was a Sav- 



24 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

iour. Often the term "gospel " is used in an un- 
limited sense, as applying to the whole of revealed 
truth, the entire volume of the Scriptures. It is 
not so employed here. It is employed here in its 
restricted sense as covering only the realm of 
Christ' s redemptive work — that which is dis- 
tinctively the truth that saves. It is the an- 
nouncement of what Christ has done to redeem 
men, and therefore an announcement of histori- 
cal facts. Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthi- 
ans, chap. 15 :i~3, declares the gospel to consist 
of three facts: "Moreover, brethren, I declare 
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, 
which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand ; 
by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory 
what I preached unto you, unless ye have be- 
lieved in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all 
that which I also received, how that Christ died 
for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that 
he was buried, and that he rose again the third day 
according to the Scriptures/' 

The gospel according to this statement of Paul' s 
is constituted of these three facts, 1st, Christ died 
for our sins; 2d, He was buried, 3d, He rose again. 

1 st. Christ died for our sins. His death was 
substitutionary. It was for our sins. He was of 
himself under no necessity to die. He was "the 






THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 2 $ 

Life," "the Prince of Life ' ' John 14:6; Acts 
3:15. "As the Father hath life in himself, so 
hath he given to the Son to have life in himself/ ' 
John 5 : 26. He laid down his life voluntarily : 
"Therefore doth my Father love me because I 
lay down my life that I might take it again. No 
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of my- 
self. I have power to lay it down, and I have 
power to take it again. This commandment 
have I received of my Father." John 10 : 17-18. 
But in doing this he bore the burden of human 
sin. " The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us 
all." Isa. 53 : 6. He "was delivered for our 
offenses." Rom. 4 .-25. "Who his own self 
bare our sins in his own body on the tree." 
1 Pet. 2 : 24. He died under the curse of the 
sin that was laid upon him. He was therefore 
the sinner's substitute. Daniel tells us that the 
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself." 
Isaiah in the fifty-third chapter of his prophecies, 
which is a large testimony to the substitutionary 
work of Christ, says: "He was wounded for 
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniqui- 
ties ; the chastisement of our peace was upon 
him ; and with his stripes we are healed. ... It 
pleased the Lord to bruise him ; he hath put him 
to grief ; when thou shalt make his soul an offer- 



26 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

ing for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong 
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall pros- 
per in his hand." Verses 5, 10. 

Paul says, ' ' When we were yet without strength, 
in due time Christ died for the ungodly/' "God 
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we 
were yet sinners, Christ died for us/' Rom. 
5 : 6-8. In dying, Christ so met the claims of 
God's holy law against the sinner, that we have 
such strong and emphatic declarations as these 
are : "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of 
the law, being made a curse for us : for it is writ- 
ten, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." 
Gal. 3 : 13. "He was made to be sin for us, who 
knew no sin ; that we might be made the right- 
eousness of God in him." 2 Cor. 5 : 21. "Christ 
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the 
unjust, that he might bring us to God," 1 Pet. 
3:18. "Now once in the end of the world hath 
he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of 
himself." Heb. 9:26. He, so John told his 
disciples, was "the Lamb of God which beareth 
away the sin of the world/' Up to his day, sacri- 
ficial offerings had been made, according to God's 
own appointment, of lambs, or goats, or bul- 
locks, or doves, in keeping with the abliity of the 
worshipper, and in presenting them the offerer 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 27 

had "put his hand upon the head of the burnt- 
offering," and it was "accepted for him, (i. e., 
instead of him) to make atonement for him." 
These were all types of God's coming sacrifice, 
Christ Jesus. These foreshadowed him. This is 
the explanation the epistle to the Hebrews, the 
divine and therefore infallible commentary on 
the Levitical Institute, gives us: "This man, 
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for 
ever, sat down on the right hand of God ; from 
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made 
his footstool. For by one offering he hath per- 
fected for ever them that are sanctified. " Heb. 
10 : 12-14. 

The completeness of this act, its glorious per- 
fection, is intimated in passages like this : "Who, 
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat 
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." 
Heb. 1:3. And this : " Who needeth not daily, 
as those high-priests, to offer up sacrifices, first 
for his own sins, and then for the people's ; for 
this he did once when he offered up himself." 
Heb. 7 : 2j. And this : "If the blood of bulls 
and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprink- 
ling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of 
the flesh, how much more shall the blood of 
Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered 



28 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

himself without spot to God, purge your con- 
science from dead works to serve the living God." 
Heb. 9 : 13, 14. 

"Christ died for our sins." Of Christ's death 
we have the clearest and fullest evidence. His 
physical death was made sure by the thrust of the 
Roman spear into the centre of physical vitality, 
the heart. The soldiers, we are told by John, 
brake the legs of the malefactors who were cruci- 
fied with Jesus. " But when they came to Jesus, 
and saw that he was dead already, they brake not 
his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear 
pierced his side, and forthwith came there out 
blood and water. And he that saw it bear 
record, and his record is true ; and he knoweth 
that he saith true, that ye might believe/ ' John 
19 : 33-35. The physical death was the least 
part of Christ's dying on the cross. No doubt 
that had many distressing accompaniments, such 
as the terrible thirst of a fevered and disordered 
frame through the laceration of the cruel nails, 
and the furrows ploughed upon his back by the 
scourging in Pilate's hall ; and the railing of the 
malefactors, the derision of the elders, the mock- 
ery of the soldiers, and the reviling of those pass- 
ing by, all added to the agony of the cross. But 
the chief element of that death was the spiritual 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 29 

element — the desertion of the Father, the with- 
drawal of the light and comfort of God's face 
which caused him to cry out, "My God, my 
God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Why was 
the Son forsaken of the Father ? Why was he 
caused to pass through such a bitter experience ? 
Why was the flow of communion broken and the 
heart left desolate ? It was because sin was laid 
on him, and was being punished in him. His 
soul was made an offering for sin. He was suf- 
fering for sins. How long he suffered we may 
not be able to tell, but we know this that his suf- 
fering culminated in the cross. It was in force 
in Gethsemane. It was felt in the temptation in 
the wilderness. It beat in upon him, as the in- 
coming tide beats upon the rocks along the coast, 
all through his life. He suffered being tempted. 
He endured the contradiction of sinners against 
himself. The misery and woe of a weary, sinning 
world were borne in upon his heart, and he 
"Himself took our infirmities, and bare our 
sicknesses." The dark shadow of the cross 
rested upon all his life, but on Calvary he drank 
the cup of God's wrath, to the dregs, so that he 
was able to say, "It is finished." The great 
redemptive work is done. The kingdom of 
heaven is open to all believers. 



3 o THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

" Finished all the types and shadows 
Of the ceremonial law ; 
Finished all that God has promised, 
Death and hell no more shall awe. 

It is finished ! 
Saints from hence your comfort draw." 

2nd. Christ was buried. In the atoning death 
of Christ we have the principal fact of the gospel, 
the great central fact, in which all his work cul- 
minates. What significance then are we to attach 
to his burial ? It must have some important 
purpose to serve when Paul gives it such promi- 
nence as to constitute it an element of the gos- 
pel. Now what does it tell us ? What special 
message of good does it bear ? What is its great 
practical import? Is not this element omitted 
very largely in preaching ? Yet it was ever pres- 
ent to the thoughts of our Lord. When the 
woman, in that beautiful act of hers, revealing 
her love to Christ, her adoring reverence, her 
self-sacrifice and unselfish devotion, poured an 
alabaster-box of very precious ointment on his 
head, his defence of her act against the mer- 
cenary thoughts of the disciples was, "She hath 
wrought a good work upon me, for in that she 
hath poured this ointment on my body, she did 
it for my burial. " What then is the meaning of 
Christ's burial ? We answer, 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 3 1 

I. The burial of Christ was the lowest point of 
his humiliation. The sin laid upon him carried 
him into the grave. As the representative of the 
race he had to bear all the curse of sin, and this 
was part of it : * ' Dust thou art and unto dust 
thou shalt return." So we find Christ saying 
prophetically in Psalm 22 : 15, "Thou hast 
brought me into the dust of death." This shows 
how completely he gave himself for his people. 
There was no reserve. Nothing was abhorrent to 
him. He entered so perfectly into man's estate 
that he was partaker of all its misery and abase- 
ment and suffering. He kept nothing back. He 
gave himself. 

II. The burial of Christ marks the decided con- 
summation and reality of his death. It assures 
us that it was a true death and not one merely in 
seeming. There was no deception in it. It was 
not a pious fraud. How many witnesses have we 
of the fact ! The Roman soldiers witnessed to it 
who brake not his legs because he was already 
dead. John 19 133. And they made it doubly 
sure by the spear thrust into his heart. John 
I9-34. Joseph of Arimathea who begged the 
body of the Lord from Pilate that he might honor 
it with burial, and Nicodemus who brought a 
hundred pounds' weight of myrrh and aloes 



3 2 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

wherewith to embalm him, both witness to the 
truth of his death and to the fact of his burial. 
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses 
beheld where he was laid. And the watch Pilate 
gave the chief priests and the Pharisees, which 
made the sepulchre sure, and sealed the stone 
and kept guard over it, witness to the fact of his 
being buried, and consequently to the truth of 
his being dead. 

III. The burial of Christ was a fulfilment of 
prophecies that went before upon him. And 
these indicate how the burial of Christ was in the 
mind of God. The purpose was from all eter- 
nity matured. 

In the sixteenth Psalm we have the passage 
quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost in proof 
of his resurrection, and therefore proving the 
fact of his burial. Peter tells us that it was pro- 
phetic : "For David speaketh concerning him, I 
foresaw the Lord always before my face ; for he 
is on my right hand, that I should not be moved, 
therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue 
was glad ; moreover also my flesh shall rest in 
hope ; because thou wilt not leave my soul in 
hell (or Hades), neither wilt thou suffer thine 
Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made 
known to me the way of life ; thou shalt make 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. ^ 

me full of joy with thy countenance. " Acts 
2 : 25-28. 

When the scribes and Pharisees came to our 
Lord seeking a sign in attestation of the divinity 
of his mission, he made answer that his burial 
would be the only sign given them: "An evil 
and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, 
and there shall no sign be given to it, but the 
sign of the prophet Jonah ; for as Jonah was three 
days and three nights in the whale's belly; so 
shall the Son of man be three days and three 
nights in the heart of the earth/' Matt. 12 : 39, 
40. Another prophetic passage fulfilled to the 
letter in Christ's burial is found in Isaiah 53 : 9 : 
"He made his grave with the wicked, with the 
rich in his death," or as Albert Barnes translated 
it, "And his grave was appointed with the wick- 
ed ; but he was with the rich man in his death." 
That was the natural order of events that his 
grave should be appointed with the wicked, for 
a reputed malefactor had every indignity heaped 
upon him, and was often denied honorable burial, 
being cast out into Gehenna. But in the case of 
Christ events took an unlooked-for turn — a turn 
which no finite mind could have foreseen, and 
"he was with the rich man in his death," i. e., 
his burial. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man, 
3 



34 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

and put his body, wrapped in linen and em- 
balmed with spices, in a new tomb hewn out in 
the rock where never man had yet lain : thus ful- 
filling this prophecy to the letter. 

IV. In his burial he went down into the dark 
domain of death to conquer the king of terrors. 
This is what we are told in Hebrews 2 : 14, 15 : 
" Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of 
flesh and blood, he likewise himself took part of 
the same ; that through death he might destroy 
him that had the power of death, that is, the 
devil ; and deliver those who through fear of 
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 
And so effectually did he do this, that he rose 
again, because it was not possible he should be 
holden of it. Now he claims sovereignty here. 
"I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold 
I am alive for evermore, Amen ; and have the 
keys of hell (Hades) and death/' He has con- 
quered the king of terrors in his own province. 
Well may we joyfully sing with Isaac Watts : 

11 Hosanna to the Prince of Light, 

That clothed himself in clay, 
Entered the iron gates of death 

And tore the bars away. 
Death is no more the king of dread, 

Since our Immanuel rose; 
He took the tyrant's sting away 

And spoiled our hellish foes." 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 



35 



V. By his burial he has changed utterly the 
character of the grave. It is no longer in the 
eyes of a believer "the long home ;" it is a cem- 
etery, a sleeping-place. And oh, how short a 
sleep ! He has transformed the most dismal part 
of life's experiences into a quiet resting-place, so 
that it might be said of the dead, "He sleepeth," 
and of those committed to the dust, ' ' They shall 
enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds/' 
Isa. 57 : 2. 

He has robbed the grave of its repulsive dread, 
sweetened it with the perfume of his spices, and 
filled it with his holy light. He has given his 
people a heart of bright hope, and put a new song 
in their mouth : "O death, where is thy sting! 
O grave, where is thy victory i" 1 Cor. 15:55. 
He has given his ministers a new note in their 
preaching : "All things are yours ; whether Paul, 
or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or 
death, or things present or things to come ; all 
are yours; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is 
God's." 1 Cor. 3:22, 23. He has taken the 
sting from death, and the grave no longer can 
retain its tenantry. Men and women believing 
in the Lord call death their friend, and pass 
hence rejoicing in the hope of a glorious resurrec- 
tion. The believer says of his spirit, "Absent 



36 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

from the body, present with the Lord, ' and of 
his body, "My flesh shall rest in hope/' By the 
burial of Christ light shines in the place that be- 
fore was darkest. Go into an old Roman ceme- 
tery and stand among its costly tombs, the expres- 
sion of tender love and undying affection. What 
a dismal spot it is ! Read the inscriptions. What 
darkness is in them, what heart-breaks, what in- 
consolable misery, what boundless grief ! "Vale, 
vale, eternum vale." Farewell, farewell, an eter- 
nal farewell ! What deep darkness, blinding 
darkness rests there at the very point where our 
bruised and aching hearts need light most ! But 
Christ has dispelled the darkness and brought life 
and immortality to light. Turn all this revelation 
on the words of the psalmist and how they deep- 
en : "Yea, though I walk through the valley of 
the shadow of death I will fear no evil ; for thou 
art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they comfort 
me." What reason then have we to bless God 
that "Christ was buried." 

3d. Christ rose from the dead. This is the third 
fact that enters into the gospel, and it is one of 
far-reaching consequence. It binds together the 
whole structure of Christ's work. It is the key- 
stone of the arch built up by our Lord in his 
sacrificial atonement, an arch whose foundations 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 37 

are laid in the dark depths where sin seethes and 
hisses, but which springs up into the heavenly 
heights crowned with glory. Often has it been 
vehemently and vigorously assaulted, but it has 
never been disproved. It shines on, as the sun 
shines in the firmament, illuminating all, and far 
removed from all the noise and strife of querul- 
ous and contentious men. On it hangs the whole 
weight of our faith and hope and salvation. So 
Paul assures us : " If Christ be not risen then is 
our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 
Yea, and we are found false-witnesses of God, 
because we have testified of God that he raised 
up Christ ; whom he raised not up, if so be that 
the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then 
is not Christ raised ; and if Christ be not raised, 
your faith is vain : ye are yet in your sins. Then 
they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are 
perished. If in this life only we have hope in 
Christ, we are of all men most miserable/ 7 

Concerning no historical event have we more 
abundant proof, nor more satisfactory. It is 
simply overwhelming. It bears us on as a swol- 
len stream bears driftwood. Matthew tells us of 
the descent of an angel from heaven, who rolled 
away the stone from the door of the sepulchre, 
and sat on the stone : of a great earthquake 



38 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

speaking out the presence of God : of the mes- 
sage the angel delivered to the woman who came 
to see the sepulchre, of Christ's resurrection : 
' ' He is not here ; for he is risen, as he said ; 
come see the place where the Lord lay." Matt. 
28 : 1-6. So the angel declared to them the 
resurrection. He reminded them of our Lord's 
oft-repeated words: "Be killed, and be raised 
again the third day. ' ' John in his gospel con- 
nects the events of that morning and gives us a 
complete view, Chap. 20:1-18. The women 
were earliest at the sepulchre, and finding the 
stone rolled away and the sepulchre empty, they 
ran to tell Peter and John ; on coming, John 
stooped down, and looking in saw the linen 
clothes lying, yet went he not in ; but Peter 
coming went in and saw the linen clothes lie, 
and the napkin that was about his head not lying 
with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a 
place by itself. Then John went in, encouraged 
by Peter, and he saw and believed. For as yet 
they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise 
again from the dead. Satisfied with what they 
had seen they returned home. But a woman's 
heart is not so easily contented, so Mary lingers 
still, standing without "at the sepulchre weep- 
ing; and as she wept she stooped down and 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 39 

looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels 
in white sitting, one at the head and the other at 
the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And 
they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou ? 
She saith unto thern, Because they have taken 
away my Lord, and I know not where they have 
laid him. And when she had thus said, she 
turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and 
knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, 
Woman, why weepest thou ? She, supposing him 
to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou 
have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast 
laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith 
unto her, Mary ! She turned herself, and saith 
unto him, Rabboni ! which is to say, Master !" 
There is instant recognition now. The use of 
the familiar personal name unseals the heart and 
opens the eyes and Jesus stands revealed, and the 
demonstration of the resurrection is complete. 
The empty grave is not enough, for as Mary sug- 
gests, Christ might have been borne away to 
some other place ; but the living person puts the 
matter for her beyond doubt. Mary was about 
to throw herself at his feet and clasp his knees, 
but Jesus withholds her. "Touch me not; for 
I am not yet ascended to my Father ; but go to 
my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto 



4 o THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

my Father and your Father ; and to my God and 
your God." And Mary obeyed Christ's word, 
and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, 
and what he had said to her. In the remainder 
of John's gospel we have repeated appearances of 
Christ recorded. 

Peter, on the day of Pentecost, spoke of 
Christ's rising in this way: "Whom God raised 
up, having loosed the pains of death ; because 
it was not possible that he should be holden 
of it." 

Stephen witnessed to the risen Saviour : " Be- 
hold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of 
Man standing on the right hand of God." Acts 
7 : 56. This fact always stood at the forefront of 
Apostolic preaching. Everywhere it is seen. In 
the fifteenth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Cor- 
inthians we have the proofs marshalled in order, 
and a strong and irresistible argument constructed 
upon them. And so much did Paul make of this 
doctrine at Athens, that the wise men there said : 
"He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods : 
because he preached unto them Jesus and the 
resurrection." The living and witnessing church 
of Christ to-day is a proof that Christ is not dead, 
but alive again, and alive for evermore. What 
does the resurrection of Christ mean ? It means 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 4 x 

very much, and that we ought to understand as 
clearly as possible, because on it depends to a 
large extent our comfort of heart, and our peace 
of mind, and our power for service. 

1 st. It was a clear proof of his being divine. 
Had he been a mere man death would have 
reigned over him and kept him in thraldom. 
But he rose in triumph over death and the grave ; 
"declared to be the Son of God with power, 
according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resur- 
rection from the dead/ 7 He was the Prince of 
Life, who for the redemption of sinful men made 
himself of no reputation, and took on him the 
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness 
of men : and being found in fashion as a man 
he humbled himself, and became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore 
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him 
a name that is above every name, that at the 
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things 
in heaven, and in earth, and under the earth, 
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus 
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." 
The resurrection of Christ is a demonstration of 
his divinity. 

2d. He rose for our justification. His rising 
made it manifest that he had put away sin — 



42 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

" purged our sins" so effectually that he was 
now without sin. Our sins were laid on him, 
and on the cross he paid the death penalty, and 
in his rising from the dead we have the receipt, 
showing that now no charge stands against him 
who receives Christ and trusts in his atoning sac- 
rifice. His perfect work is that on account of 
which we are pardoned : and his resurrection de- 
clares its perfection and its acceptance of God. 

3d. He was the first-fruits of them that slept ; 
"the first-born from the dead." He, in this 
respect, is a representative person. He shows 
the life that he has brought as Adam showed the 
death he wrought. "If by one man's offence 
death reigned by one, much more they which 
receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of 
righteousness, shall reign in life by One, Jesus 
Christ." "Since by man came death, by man 
came also the resurrection of the dead. For as 
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be 
made alive. But every man in his own order ; 
Christ the first-fruits ; afterward they that are 
Christ's, at his coming." Rom. 5:17; 1 Cor. 
15 : 21, 23. 

There were resurrections prior to that of our 
Lord, those of Jairus' daughter, the widow of 
Nain'sson, and Lazarus, and there were "many 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 



43 



bodies of the saints which slept, who arose and 
came out of the graves after his resurrection, and 
went into the holy city, and appeared unto 
many. ' ' But it was by his power that all these 
events took place. He could affirm with the 
fullest meaning in his words, "I am the resur- 
rection and the life/' The wonderful change 
wrought by Christ's resurrection is sweetly sung 
by one of our English poets, Henry Vaughan. 
It is entitled 

EASTER HYMN. 

Death and darkness, get you packing : 

Nothing now to man is lacking. 

All your triumphs now are ended, 

And what Adam marred is mended. 

Graves are beds now for the weary ; 

Death a nap, to make more merry ; 

Youth now full of pious duty, 

Seeks in thee for perfect beauty ; 

The weak and aged, tired with length 

Of days, from thee look for new strength ; 

And infants with thy pangs contest 

As pleasant as if with the breast. 

Then unto him who thus hath thrown 

Even to contempt thy kingdom down, 

And by his blood did us advance 

Unto his own inheritance, 

To him be glory, power, and praise 

From this unto the last of days ! 

In Christ's resurrection we have the type of our 
rising from the grave. Sown natural bodies, we 



44 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

shall rise spiritual bodies. He " shall change 
our body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned 
like unto his glorious body, according to the 
working whereby he is able to subdue all things 
unto himself/' Phil. 3:21. 

' 1 If we have been planted together in the like- 
ness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness 
of his resurrection. \ \ Rom. 6 : 5. 

4th. He rose that he might complete his re- 
demption by its effectual application to the hearts 
and lives of men. It was not enough that the 
high-priest offered sacrifice at the altar ; he had 
to carry the blood into the most holy place, and 
there sprinkle it before the mercy- seat and upon 
the mercy-seat. The voice of the blood, repre- 
senting the life that had been sacrificed, had to 
speak there. And there it was accepted as a 
"sweet savor/' pleasing to God, on behalf of 
those for whom it was offered. And the high- 
priest issuing from the most holy place, lifted up 
his hands and blessed the people. So Christ has 
entered into heaven to appear in the presence of 
God for us; entered "by his own blood," "hav- 
ing obtained eternal redemption for us." He is 
there " a priest for ever after the order of Melchis- 
edec." "And because he continueth ever, he 
hath an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore he 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 45 

is able to save them to the uttermost that come 
unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make 
intercession for them." The exaltation to God's 
right hand is the crowning of him with glory and 
honor. From thence he carries on to its final 
accomplishment the redemptive work he has un- 
dertaken. "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit 
thou at my right hand, until I make thine ene- 
mies thy footstool/ ' "He must reign till he 
hath put all enemies under his feet. The last 
enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Psa. 
110:1; 1 Cor. 15 : 25, 26. 

5th. He went to the Father that he might 
send the Holy Spirit. The Spirit came in ful- 
fillment of Christ's promise as his resurrection 
gift. He said to his disciples : " It is expedient 
for you that I go away ; for if I depart I will 
send him unto you. And when he is come he 
will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness 
and of judgment." He outlined the office-work 
still further as he said : " He shall testify of me," 
" He will guide you into all truth," "He shall 
glorify me," "He shall teach you all things and 
bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever 
I have said unto you." He applies all Christ's 
atoning work effectually to the heart and trans- 
forms the believer into the likeness of his Lord. 



46 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

How important then is the resurrection of Christ ! 
How evidently necessary it is as an element of 
the good tidings of great joy. Without it every- 
thing would have been involved in darkness. But 
with it everything is brought into the beautiful, 
sweet light. We can say now, The darkness is 
past and the light now shineth. The Sun of 
Righteousness, of whom Malachi sang, has risen, 
and holds his place on the circle of the heavens. 

These three facts constitute the gospel by which 
we are saved. When once they are distinctly 
seen, they ever, as we read the sacred Scriptures, 
rise to the mind, and touch the conscience and 
the heart. They are like the outline of Washing- 
ton made by two crooked trees at Mt. Vernon. 
Look at the trees and the shadowy figure may 
not be seen, but once observe it and you cannot 
look again without seeing it. There it stands in 
striking boldness. So is it with Christ's substi- 
tutionary work : everywhere there is an altar 
and a sacrifice, and the shedding of blood, for 
without the shedding of blood there is no remis- 
sion of sins. The central fact is the death of 
Christ. His birth into our nature, and his life 
on earth in which he entered into the misery of 
our condition, were necessary to this. He came 
expressly to die. He did not die simply because 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 



47 



he was here, but he came to die. That was an- 
nounced by the angel, " Thou shalt call his name 
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." 
John reiterates the same truth, "Behold the Lamb 
of God which taketh away the sin of the world." 
Paul gives us a proverb current in the early church 
embodying the same thought : "This is a faith- 
ful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 
This was Christ's principal character, this over- 
topped all others. That this is, in the mind of 
the Spirit of God, the ruling aspect of Christ, now 
and for ever, here and hereafter, is evident from 
these representations in the Apocalypse of John : 
"And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the 
throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of 
the elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain, 
having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the 
seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." 
Ch. 5:6. "These are they that came out of 
great tribulation, and have washed their robes, 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, 
etc." "The Lamb which is in the midst of the 
throne." Ch. 7 : 14, 17. His birth, his life, his 
miracles, all fall away out of sight, because they 
formed at once the altar on which his vicarious 
sacrifice was presented to God, and the scene on 



48 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

which his true divinity was revealed to the world. 
It was necessary that he should be man ; but 
being man, the main act of his life, that to which 
all others were subordinated, was his death — a 
death for sin. These facts as forming the gospel, 
and their central one Jesus Christ and him cruci- 
fied, should be seen as with a sunbeam — seen so 
as never to be obscured, or forgotten, or missed ; 
as the truth that saves. As Richard Sibbs ob- 
serves : "Christ is the great ordinance of God 
for our salvation. The gospel is the great ordi- 
nance of God, to lay open the unsearchable 
riches of Christ/ ' 

All that man needs to quiet his conscience, to 
satisfy his mind, and to impart peace to his heart 
is found in the atonement of Christ. 

He is the sinner's substitute. He assumed all 
his responsibilities, took his place, met the claims 
of God's holy law in a life of holiness and in a 
death of suffering for sin. He, being divine, had 
something to offer. Had he been only man he 
would have had nothing to offer. He offered 
"himself. " All his work was voluntary. And 
he being the God-man, Emmanuel, God with us, 
this gave his sacrifice an infinite value. He was 
the mass of gold paid down for the millions of 
copper or nickel coin. Christ, by virtue of his 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 4 g 

divine character, could atone for millions, and in 
a brief space atone for all transgression and sin. 
So that God could say, "This is my beloved Son 
in whom I am well pleased." And now he who 
hides in Christ, who trusts in him, is saved — saved 
with an everlasting salvation. 

Thus we have found the gospel to be the an- 
nouncement of certain historic facts in reference 
to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which are of 
universal interest, and the belief of which be- 
comes the power of God unto salvation for the 
individual. We should therefore distinguish be- 
tween the gospel and much that in our day passes 
current for it. There are many things that seem 
to be gold, but they are only gilded. They are 
like the mirage in the desert ; it is the vision of 
palm-trees and flowing water, but it is only a 
vision, there is no substantial reality there. 
These are often made 



5o 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 



IV. SUBSTITUTES FOR THE GOSPEL. 

They need to be pointed out just as the course 
of a vessel into New York harbor is, lest the pre- 
cious craft should run aground and unspeakable 
damage be the result. Our Lord's commission 
to his apostles was, "Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature. He 
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but 
he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark 
1 6 : 15, 16. In this commission we should note 
the order. 

(1.) It corrects an error into which many fall, 
as it shows the relation of faith to the gospel. 
The gospel and the faith of the gospel are two 
things, no doubt related to each other, but still 
different. Faith follows the hearing of the gos- 
pel, as Paul declares, " Faith cometh by hearing, 
and hearing by the word of God." Rom. 10 : 17. 
Again, " He that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
lasting life." John 3:36. Believing is based on 
a knowledge of the Son. It is the outcome of 
that knowledge. Knowledge inspires faith. Faith 
cannot exist without an object. In the gospel 
men are called unto faith ; indeed, shut up unto 
faith. That is the one all-necessary work they 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 51 

are to do now in order to justification. The call 
to faith always supposes the statement of Christ's 
atoning work as preceding it and bringing it into 
existence. Dr. Robert Boyd, of Chicago, says, 
"The work of man's salvation was finished on 
the cross. This we are called upon to believe as 
a completed fact. Our faith does not make the 
fact, but rests upon it as established by God's 
word. The work was done before the faith ex- 
isted, and was wholly independent of it. Yet 
unless I believe in the finished work I cannot be 
saved by it, but am still under condemnation. 
'He that believeth not is condemned already/ 
Thus the work of Christ on the cross, eighteen 
hundred years ago, and my personal interest in it 
are two different things/' We need so thor- 
oughly to distinguish them that we may never 
imagine that the one can take the place of the 
other. The call to faith supposes the gospel 
truth as going before. That quickens faith in the 
soul. That makes faith possible. That by the 
operation of the Holy Spirit brings faith into 
existence. 

(2.) Again, invitations to come to Christ, to 
accept Christ, are not the gospel, but are based 
upon the gospel, and in this way are so closely 
related to it that they are often regarded as being 



5 2 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

the gospel. The recognition of the difference 
will be of great moment, especially when looking 
for results. Invitations are to be given in all the 
winsome and attractive ways we can conceive, 
yet we must see to it that they are not empty and 
therefore ineffective invitations. If we use such 
we are fishing with a bare hook. We are hunting 
without lead in our gun whereby to bring down 
the game. If we consider the invitations of the 
Bible we shall find in them some solid fact, some 
great spiritual reality, some good that we are to 
attain, presented to our minds. There is some 
blessing offered to us, which we need, in and 
through the Lord Jesus, which makes the invita- 
tion effective. Take the gracious invitation of 
Matthew n, and take it in its completeness, and 
how mighty it is upon the heart! "All things 
are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man 
knoweth the Son but the Father : neither know- 
eth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to 
whom the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will 
give you rest." Christ offers rest to the dis- 
tressed and burdened sons of men, and that in 
view of the fact that all things (or as it is in the 
28 th chapter, verse 18, all power in heaven and in 
earth) are delivered unto him. How rich that 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 53 

gospel is ! Christ is the giver of rest, because he 
has been the bearer of sin. 

Take the invitation in the evangelical prophet 
Isaiah : " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye 
to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come 
ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk 
without money and without price. Wherefore 
do ye spend money for that which is not bread ? 
and your labor for that which satisfieth not ? 
Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that 
which is good, and let your soul delight itself in 
fatness." Chap. 53 : 1, 2. The Lord Jehovah, 
our Saviour-God, is the speaker, and his invita- 
tion is to himself as the water of life and as the 
bread of life. He gives both, which all men so 
pressingly need, without money and without price, 
that is, freely. 

The invitation which closes the book of Reve- 
lation is of a kind nature. Christ is the speaker, 
and his appeal is to the deep-seated thirst in us, 
which nothing can quench but the life of God, 
symbolized by the living water. "The Spirit and 
the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth 
say, Come. And let him that is athirst, come ; 
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
freely." Oh, how sweet this is ! how grateful to 
our parched souls ! Christ has opened the foun- 



54 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

tain of the water of life, come drink. Ye are 
perishing of thirst, drink and live. The invita- 
tion always has beneath it or before it the grand 
gospel fact, which gives it birth, and makes it 
attractive and powerful over the mind and heart. 
It always arises out of the provision that has been 
made. 

(3.) Paul speaks of "another gospel which is 
not another/' whereby the Galatians had been 
carried away from Christ. And so greatly is his 
soul exercised about this, that he speaks strong- 
ly. "There be some which trouble you, and 
would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other 
gospel unto you than that ye have received, let 
him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now 
again, If any man preach any other gospel unto 
you than that ye have received, let him be ac- 
cursed/' Gal. 1 17-9. That expresses the feel- 
ing of the great apostle with regard to pure gospel 
preaching. He is jealous of the grace of God. 
He does not want any adulteration of the simple, 
soul-saving story. He will not let man come in 
where Christ must be seen alone. The teachers 
to whom he refers were Jews who insisted on cir- 
cumcision, saying, "Except ye be circumcised 
after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved/' 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 55 

So he says to them : "Behold, I Paul say unto 
you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit 
you nothing. For I testify again to every man 
that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the 
whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto 
you, whosoever of you are justified by the law ; ye 
are fallen from grace." Gal. 5:2-4. That is, 
you have changed your standing ground; you 
are trusting to your own doings, rather than to 
what Christ has done. Therefore 

" Lay your deadly doings down, 
Down at Jesus' feet ; 
Stand in him, in him alone 
Gloriously complete." 

The snare laid for the Galatians is often laid 
for the feet of poor, lost sinners. Laid unwitting- 
ly sometimes. Laid in ignorance at other times. 
But always to do damage to the soul, whensoever 
or by whomsoever laid. ' ' The law is not of faith ; 
but the man that doeth them shall live in them/' 
Paul affirms, and then he utters the grand gospel 
statement: "Christ hath redeemed us from the 
curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; for 
it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on 
a tree : that the blessing of Abraham might come 
on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ : that we 
might receive the promise of the Spirit through 



56 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

faith/' Gal 3:12-14. # "Now to him that 
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but 
of 'debt. But to him that worketh not, but be- 
lieveth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his 
faith is counted for righteousness/ 7 Rom. 
4 : 4, 5- 

This other gospel, which is not another, finds 
in us too ready a welcome. It makes us after all 
of some consequence. It does not humble us. 
It does not declare our utterly lost and helpless 
condition, and so has many admirers. But it 
imperils the souls of men. It hinders them from 
relying wholly upon Christ as their Saviour, and 
saying with Toplady : 

" Nothing in my hand I bring; 
Simply to thy cross I cling ; 
Naked, come to thee for dress ; 
Helpless, look to thee for grace ; 
Foul, I to the fountain fly ; 
Wash me, Saviour, or I die." 

We must allow nothing to keep us out of the 
sinner's place, for it is there we find the sinner's 
Saviour. Christ does not help us to save our- 
selves, he saves us from first to last. Trusting 
therefore to anything we can do just cuts us off 
from reliance upon Christ. And that is to be cut 
off from life eternal. If we hold one of our fin- 
gers close enough to our eye we may shut out all 






THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 5 7 

the light of the sun blazing in his noonday splen- 
dor. So by trusting to any work of our own, we 
are unfit to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ with 
our whole heart. Let us beware of this perversion 
of the gospel ! 

(4.) The term " Gospel M is frequently applied 
to the whole Bible, and consequently any text 
from any part of it, used as a theme for pulpit 
discourse is regarded as carrying the gospel, and 
it is spoken of as being the gospel, while there 
may not be a single gospel sentence in it. It may 
be law with its claim and its penalty ; it may be 
exhortation with its rallying and rousing con- 
siderations ; it may be warning with its alarm and 
its rude awakening ; it may be a call to righteous- 
ness of life and holiness of heart ; it may be re- 
proof, or remonstrance, or correction, or instruc- 
tion in righteousness ; it may be consolation, or 
inspiration, or the unveiling of the future. How 
wide a sweep it may take ! How diverse it may 
be ! And yet there may not ring in it a single 
gospel bell. On one occasion years ago I attended 
Sabbath evening service in a Scotch church. There 
was a large congregation present. The magnifi- 
cent organ and a trained choir led the service of 
song, which was very fine. The minister entered 
gowned and hooded, led by his assistant and the 



58 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES, 

beadle, who carried a mace. The reading of the 
Scripture and the prayer was done by the assistant. 
And when the preacher gave out his text, it ran : 
"And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, 
they put it upon his head." At once I thought, 
a fine gospel text ! He will tell us what the 
thorns are : how they came, and how they have 
been put away. What scope for the utterance of 
the most precious, soul-saving truth ! But how 
astonished was I, when the young preacher began : 
"This text brings before us the empire of pain. " 
And from that point to the close, there was not 
a gospel sentence in it. Socrates or Seneca or 
Epictetus might have been in the pulpit. There 
were no glad tidings of great joy for the large 
company assembled in that storied chamber. As 
the congregation dispersed I remarked to a dear 
friend who accompanied me, "The worst of all 
is, that it is not only a lost opportunity, but this 
large crowd of people will go away imagining 
that they have been listening to the gospel, where 
not a gospel word has been spoken. 

The whole revelation of God is blessed truth, 
and maybe termed "gospel" in an exceedingly 
loose and general sense : a sense that may often 
deceive poor souls. But what is meant by "gos- 
pel " in the New Testament, is saving truth, the 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 59 

story of Christ's dying love and of God's great 
mercy, and of sin atoned for, and reconciliation 
made, and the kingdom of heaven opened to all 
believers. It is not a promise of forgiveness on 
account of our doing anything — it is rather the 
announcement that all is done, and that we are 
to rest satisfied with it as done for us. "This 
is the record — that God hath given to us eternal 
life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath 
the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son 
of God hath not life." 

It is the revelation of the grace of God to sin- 
ful and sinning man. It is not, strictly speak- 
ing, duty, it is privilege — a blessing to receive ; 
life in Christ Jesus, with nothing to pay. It is 
pardon of all sin through Jesus Christ, peace 
with God through Jesus Christ, salvation through 
Jesus Christ. The key word of Paul's Epistle to 
the Ephesians, " In Him," is the keyword of the 
gospel. It is the joyful message of deliverance 
for the prisoner, peace for the troubled, rest for 
the weary, cleansing for the polluted, joy for the 
disconsolate, hope for the despairing, light for 
the darkened and life for the dead, in Christ Je- 
sus. "Blessed be the God and Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all 
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." 



60 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

(5) The offer of salvation is sometimes exalted 
into an exceedingly conspicuous position, in which 
it is looked upon as the gospel, and takes the 
place even of the gospel itself. Now the offer of 
salvation to men is part of the gospel, but it is 
the consequence flowing from the grand gospel 
facts, rather than the facts themselves. It is the 
facts that bring the offer into existence and make 
it possible. And it is no unnecessary refinement 
to distinguish between the facts themselves and 
the offer of salvation to which they give rise : 
because we can easily conceive the offer extended 
and the reason of its being made hidden out of 
sight, and so the offer fail in producing any effect. 
We are reasonable beings. The laws of mind de- 
mand a clear setting forth of the ground of our 
action, so that it may be intelligent. The man- 
ner in which the offer arises is seen in our Lord's 
parabolic teaching, and this ought to be clearly 
kept in view in our dealing with men. They 
should never be separated. What God hath joined 
together let no man put asunder. The feast is 
spread, come ! 

The offer is sometimes by us made condition- 
ally : " If you believe there is salvation for you," 
which is perfectly true, but this is often said as 
if faith by its action created salvation — brought 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 6l 

it into existence, and that want of faith shows a 
non-existence of the provision of salvation. Now 
the provision of salvation is something entirely 
independent of faith. Christ died, the Just for 
the unjust, whether men believe it or not. It is 
now an unalterable fact. There it stands, in the 
love and mercy of God, true for ever, and un- 
affected by man's action. It is a fact, however, 
that mightily affects men. It is a stone that lifts 
their heads above the darkness and death of sin, 
when welcomed in a wholehearted way, or it is a 
stone that, being rejected, grinds them to pow- 
der. The provision is unquestionable ; " God so 
loved the world that he gave his only-begotten 
Son/' and the offer springs out of it, "that who- 
soever believeth on him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life/' 

When Dr. Thomas Guthrie of Edinburgh ex- 
pounds i John 2:2 — "He is the propitiation for 
our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the 
whole world," he says: "This binds the earth 
as with a zone of mercy, and perish the hand 
which narrows it an hair's breadth/' There is 
an universal provision underlying the universal 
offer. The offer is an authentic gospel offer. 
There is no deception about it. It is real as God 
is real, and true as God is true. "God the Fa- 



62 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

ther as he is in his Son Jesus Christ, moved with 
nothing but with his free love to mankind lost, 
hath made a deed of gift and grant unto them 
all, that whosoever of them shall believe in this 
his Son, shall not perish, but have eternal life." 

Dr. Thomas Chalmers in his "Institutes of 
Theology" observes : " God has made the salva- 
tion of the gospel universal in point of proposi- 
tion, the fault is man's if it be not universal in 
point of effect. God hath made the Sun of 
Righteousness to arise with healing under his 
wings in sight of all the nations, though we may 
shut our eyes against it. He hath lifted up the 
widely-sounding call, though we may shut our 
ears against it. He hath made demonstration of 
unexpected goodwill to the species — the condem- 
nation is ours if we do not look and do not lis- 
ten to it." 

Dr. A. A. Hodge in his "Outlines of Theol- 
ogy" says : "A bona fide offer of the gospel, 
therefore, is to be made to all men. i. Because 
the satisfaction rendered to the law is sufficient 
for all men. 2. Because it is exactly adapted to 
the redemption of all. 3. Because God designs 
that whosoever exercises faith in Christ shall be 
saved by him. 

"The design of Christ's death being to secure 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 63 

the salvation of his own people, incidentally to 
the accomplishment of that end it comprehends 
the offer of that salvation freely and honestly to 
all men on condition of their faith. No man is 
lost for the want of an atonement, or because 
there is any other barrier in the way of his salva- 
tion than his own most free and wicked will," 
PP- 3 22 , 3 2 3- Dr. Hodge here, after his clear 
setting forth of the bona fide nature of the free 
offer, reaches a fact which is often made a stone 
of stumbling. Why do men not believe ? Some 
are very bold and very unscriptural, as they are 
ready to declare, "It is because they are repro- 
bates. It is because they have not the Holy 
Spirit. It is because God does not touch them." 
Philosophically these positions may be held. But 
they all dishonor God. They run counter to the 
plain words of Christ in reference to this matter : 
"Ye will not come unto me that ye might have 
life." Wherever philosophy might lead, it is 
enough for me that Christ has spoken, and no 
one can philosophize better than he, for his mind 
takes in more and his heart has greater love than 
that of any other man. These words of Christ 
ought to be an end of all controversy. And they 
can be supported by better reasons than any 
philosopher can produce. Christ said simply, 



64 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

Man is himself to blame, not God. Man will 
not believe ; he will not entertain the convincing 
evidence. As men of old resisted the Holy Spirit, 
so do they still. As they withstood warnings, 
exhortations, invitations, free offers, so do they 
still. And all the while God is asking this ques- 
tion : "Have I any pleasure at all that the 
wicked should die ? saith the Lord God ; and 
not that he should return from his ways, and 
live i" "I have no pleasure in the death of him 
that dieth, saith the Lord God ; wherefore turn 
yourselves and live ye." Christ weeping over 
Jerusalem expresses and illustrates to us God's 
feeling in respect to doomed men. His heart 
breaks over them. God does not force men to 
comply with his offer. He respects the constitu- 
tion he has given him, and leaves him a free moral 
agent, a responsible being, a proper subject of 
moral government. To do otherwise were to 
destroy the foundations of virtue and vice, and 
overthrow righteousness which is the glory of 
God's throne. He reigns in righteousness, blessed 
be his holy name. 

The Gospel of Christ, as the Word presents it, 
is what men need to satisfy the intellect, to 
pacify the conscience, and to give rest to the 
heart. It is something substantial, real, appre- 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 6 5 

hensible ; not merely an empty sound that falls 
on the ear, but the announcement of the divine 
truth, the great and glorious fact — " Christ died 
for our si? is. 

The Gospel of Christ was in the hands of the 
apostles, as it has been in the hands of all ear- 
nest Christian workers, the truth that saves. 
" We preach Christ crucified . . . the power of 
God and the wisdom of God/'' 1 Cor. 1:23, 24. 
"Daily in the Temple and in every house (Peter 
and John) ceased not to teach and preach Jesus 
Christ." Acts 5:42. "They that were scattered 
abroad upon the persecution that arose about 
Stephen, travelled as far as Phenice and Cyprus 
and Antioch . . . preaching the Lord Jesus.'' 
Acts 2:19, 20. They never moved from that fact 
till men were saved ; and when they proceeded 
farther it was to show Jesus made wisdom and 
sanctification and redemption to the believer — 
Jesus all and in all. The truth that saves is in- 
troductory to the truth that sanctifies. That 
opens the door wide upon all covenant blessings. 
"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered 
him up for us all, how shall he not with him also 
freely give us all things V ' 

We have drawn the line of distinction thus 
sharply between the gospel and what arises out 
5 



66 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

of it, because we deem it of first importance that 
it should be so drawn that we may know when 
saving truth is presented. It is not the offer, nor 
the invitation, nor anything springing out of the 
gospel that is the power of God unto salvation — 
but the gospel itself — "Christ died, the Just for 
the unjust." That is solid ground for the poor 
lost soul to stand upon. 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 67 



V. PREPARATION FOR THE RECEPTION 
OF SA VING TRUTH. 

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Zach- 
arias, ''while he executed the priest's office be- 
fore God in the order of his course," to announce 
to him that his prayer was heard, and that Eliz- 
abeth his wife should bear a son, he added, "And 
thou shalt have joy and gladness : and many shall 
rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the 
sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine 
nor strong drink ; and he shall be filled with the 
Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And 
many of the children of Israel shall he turn to 
the Lord their God. And he shall go before him 
in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts 
of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient 
to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a peo- 
ple prepared for the Lord." 

Was this work required then, and is it not re- 
quired still ? Is not the heart of man the same 
in all ages ? The work of the Baptist, as the 
forerunner of Christ, is always needed. He went 
forth and aroused the people to a sense of their 
need. He called them to repentance. He spoke 
to them of the wrath to come. He shook them 



68 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

till they were wide awake by proclaiming the 
truth like a prophet of the olden time, boldly, 
fearlessly, and with startling effect, so that there 
"went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea and all 
the regions round about Jordan, and were baptized 
of him in Jordan confessing their sins." This 
preparatory work is always required in order to a 
proper appreciation of the gospel. It is provided 
for in the first words Christ uttered, namely, 
' ' Repent ye. ' ' That is John the Baptist' s word, 
and marks the preparation needed to fit one for 
the reception of the gospel. It strikes directly 
at the evil life men are living. It calls for a 
change in them — a great change — a change of 
thought and feeling and action with regard to 
God. It is the summing up of the Old Testa- 
ment statement in two words : " Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and 
he will have mercy upon him, and to our God 
for he will abundantly pardon." Isa. 55.7. 
This lays a strain upon the man, that brings him 
to a realization of his own sinfulness, and guilti- 
ness before God. It discovers to him the chains 
that bind him, the multitude of his transgressions 
that hold him like cords, the depth of the stain 
of evil that has been sinking, sinking, like the 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 69 

repeated washes of the water colorist, into his 
soul, so that the color has become part of him- 
self. It unveils to his eye the distance in which 
he stands from God, and it may lead him to 
cry, " Oh, wretched man that I am ! who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death?" It 
brings the conviction of sin home to a man, and 
fits him to see in Christ Jesus what he could not 
otherwise see. It is only the sick man who values 
the skill of a physician. So our Lord said to the 
Pharisees : "They that be whole need not a 
physician, but they that are sick ... I am not 
come to call the righteous but sinners to repent- 
ance/' Matt. 9:12, 13. 

This call to repentance causes men to come 
to the knowledge of their unrighteousness, with- 
out which, there is for men no form nor comeli- 
ness, nor beauty in Christ that they should desire 
him. Our old divines made much of law work, 
for by the law is the knowledge of sin, and with- 
out that, no one will seek salvation. This has 
fallen largely into the background to-day, along 
with the conditions of the impenitent lost. All 
the terrific statements of Christ touching "hell," 
and "the furnace of fire, where there shall be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth," and "everlasting 
punishment," are, if not denied, so heavily dis- 



70 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

counted, that they seldom come into view. They 
are uttered with bated breath lest offence should 
be given, when they are referred to. But that is 
so seldom that it counts for nothing. No marvel 
that to-day we hear of so few broken hearts ! 
The truth of God is not presented in its fulness. 
It is emasculated. It is nerveless. It no longer 
clutches the conscience and shakes the soul with 
the terror of the Lord. And this fact is so patent 
that even godless men make note of it. A mem- 
ber of the Supreme Court at Washington, though 
not a professed Christian, yet a thoughtful man, 
expressed himself to a pastor, making use of this 
remarkable statement : "You ministers are mak- 
ing a fatal mistake in not holding forth before 
men as prominently as the previous generation 
did, the retributive justice of God. You have 
fallen into a sentimental style of rhapsodizing over 
the love of God, and you are not appealing to 
that fear of future punishment which our Lord 
and Master made such a prominent element in his 
preaching. And we are seeing the effect of it in 
the widespread demoralization of private virtue 
and corruption of public conscience through the 
land/' This witness is true. 

A study of our Lord's dealing with the young 
ruler shows us the need of preparation in order 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 7 1 

to the receiving of God's free grace. He took 
special pains to introduce him to himself. l ' Why 
callest thou me good ? There is none good, but 
One, that is God," was intended to lift up the 
young man's mind to the infinite disparity be- 
tween himself and God. How could he do a 
good thing in presence of God's infinite holiness ? 
"Keep the commandments," was another help 
to the understanding of himself, for "by the law 
is the knowledge of sin." In that mirror the 
man sees himself. Our Lord was a true gospel 
preacher and he used the law as a revealer. " Go 
sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and 
thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and come 
and follow me." This was another stroke at the 
idol set up in the young man's heart, intended 
to turn his eyes full on it that he might see the 
chain that bound him. But alas he did not ! 
Here is a chapter in wise preparatory treatment, 
and a chapter too, which shows that even the 
greatest wisdom and skill and love are not always 
successful. It is as Solomon in his proverb de- 
clares : " A full soul loatheth an honey-comb; 
but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is 
sweet." As it is the drowning man who re- 
joices in being rescued from death, and the leper 
from the unspeakable misery of his living death, 



72 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

so it is the sinner condemned by the law on 
whom the pains of hell take hold, so that he finds 
trouble and sorrow, who is ready to flee to Christ 
for salvation from the curse that rests upon him. 
This fitness there must be, if Christ is to be de- 
sired, or sought unto, or accepted. It was when 
the prodigal "came to himself" that he said, "I 
will arise and go to my father, and will say unto 
him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and 
before thee, and am no more worthy to be called 
thy son ; make me as one of thy hired ser- 
vants. ' ' 

The consciousness of sin is there, and it is 
deep enough to make acknowledgement of being 
unworthy of sonship, and of a willingness to take 
the lowly place of a menial. Anything, anything 
to be in the Father's house. What a mighty 
preparation is a true sense of sin for the exercise 
of faith ! It seems to bring the soul to the point 
of being ready to grasp at anything that offers 
help, that shows a way of escape or a means of 
deliverance. How true those verses of the famil- 
iar hymn are, 

" All the fitness He requireth 
Is to feel your need of him." 

But to-day this is sadly wanting — a sense of sin, 
a realization of the need of salvation. The deep 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 73 

and protracted exercises of heart and conscience 
that characterized conversion in former genera- 
tions are seldom heard of to-day. We have an 
easier mode of conversion. It has in it no pain, 
no trouble, no sorrow. And there being no 
sense of condemnation in the soul, there are no 
great joys when Christ is accepted ; and more, 
no humble, lowly life when he is followed, and 
no sense of entire dependence. Christ is taken 
hold upon by a weak hand, and is weakly held 
and indifferently honored. The strong figurative 
expressions in reference to the believer's relation 
to the Lord are feebly apprehended and imper- 
fectly understood. The heart does not go sweep- 
ing into them, like the incoming tide of the sea 
into every estuary and inlet and bay along the 
coast. " Ye are not your own, for ye are bought 
with a price. " "I beseech you therefore, breth- 
ren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your 
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
God, which is your reasonable service." "The 
church of God which he hath purchased with his 
own blood." 

These Scriptures have no depth of meaning to 
one who has had no deep sense of sin, and who 
has not felt the burden of guilt and the terrors 
of the Lord, and therefore little seems to have 



74 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

been forgiven. And our Lord declares, " to whom 
little is forgiven, the same loveth little.' ' 

The mistake that is being made to-day is in 
endeavoring to simplify the truth, and in doing 
that to leave out a large and necessary portion of 
it — that which insists on the lost condition of 
man, that which presses hard on his sinfulness, 
his enmity to God, his rebellion against God, his 
being under the curse, his being a child of wrath 
going to hell, unless he repent and turn to the 
Lord. All that really shows the necessity for a 
Saviour. If men do not come to the knowledge 
of their sins how shall they ever desire a Saviour ? 
If men do not realize that they are going to hell, 
how shall they ever seek to go to heaven? If 
they know not that they are lost, how shall they 
ever care about being found ? Great damage is 
done to souls by our simplifying or sweetening 
the truth which the Holy Spirit uses for the con- 
viction of sin. It should be used just as it is, 
in all its fulness, in its breadth and height and 
length and depth. "Preach the word' 7 is the 
commission of the Lord to his laborers in his 
vineyard. Omit no part of it. What was the 
occasion of the wonderful revival at Northampton 
under Jonathan Edwards ? It was the preaching 
of the sermon entitled, "Sinners in the Hands of 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 



75 



an Angry God," the text being Deut. 32:35, 
"Their foot shall slide in due time." It is such 
a sermon as would be expected from the greatest 
theologian and philosopher of his day. Its chief 
theme is, "There is nothing that keeps wicked 
men at any one moment out of hell but the mere 
pleasure of God." This is supported by argu- 
ment taken from Scripture ; it is driven home on 
the hearts of those who are listening without fear 
or favor.- These are its closing sentences, and 
they give us a taste of the discourse : " How 
dreadful is the state of those that are daily and 
hourly in danger of this great wrath and infinite 
misery ! But this is the dismal case of every 
soul in this congregation that has not been born 
again, however moral and strict, sober and relig- 
ious they may otherwise be. Oh, that you would 
consider it, whether you be young or old ! There 
is reason to think that there are many in this con- 
gregation now hearing this discourse that will 
actually be the subjects of this very misery to all 
eternity. We know not who they are, or in what 
seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. 
It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these 
things without much disturbance, and are now 
flattering themselves that they are not the per- 
sons, promising themselves that they shall escape. 



j 6 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

If we knew that there was one person, and but 
one, in the whole congregation, that was to be 
the subject of this misery, what an awful thing it 
would be to think of ! If we knew who it was, 
what an awful sight it would be to see such a 
person ! How might all the rest of the congre- 
gation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over 
him ! But, alas ! instead of one, how many is it 
likely will remember this discourse in hell ! And 
it would be a wonder if some that are now pres- 
ent should not be in hell in a very short time, 
before this year is out ! And it would be no 
wonder if some persons that now sit here in some 
seats of this meeting-house in health, and quiet 
and serene, should be there before to-morrow 
morning \" This is the note needed to-day to 
stir men's blood. It is a breath of the ozone 
from the sun-smitten prairies of God's word. 
When William Berridge, of Everton in England, 
by his example and work had raised up bands of 
itinerating preachers, he gave them some neces- 
sary instructions, one of which was this : "When 
you state your commission, begin with laying 
open the innumerable corruptions of the hearts 
of your audience : Moses will lend you a knife 
that may be often whetted at his grindstone. 
Lay open the universal sinfulness of nature, the 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 77 

darkness of the mind, the frowardness of the will, 
the fretfulness of the temper, and the earthliness 
and sensuality of the affections. Speak of the 
evil of sin in its nature, etc. Declare the evil of 
sin in its effects, etc. Lav open the spirituality 
of the law and its extent, reaching to every 
thought, word, and action, and declaring every 
transgression (whether of omission or commis- 
sion) deserving of death. When your hearers are 
deeply affected with these things (which is seen 
by the hanging down of their heads) preach 
Christ. Lay open the Saviour's almighty power 
to soften the hard heart and give it repentance — 
to bring pardon to the broken heart, a spirit of 
prayer to the prayeriess heart, holiness to the 
filthy heart, and faith to the unbelieving heart. 
Let them know all the treasures of grace that are 
lodged in Jesus Christ for the use of the poor 
needy sinner, and that He is full of love as well as 
power — turns no beggar from his gate, but receives 
all kindly — loves to bless them." 

That is a direction wrought out of a notable 
experience which he had himself had. Dr. James 
W. Alexander of New York, writing of the great 
awakening there in 1858, says in his paper enti- 
tled " Varieties of Anxious Enquiry," "The 
law of God applied to the mind and conscience, 



78 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

is that which works conviction. Hence the 
preaching of the law precedes the preaching of the 
gospel, and is indispensable. Views of the infi- 
nite justice of God are never wanting in sound 
convictions, although as to accessories and degree 
these views may differ." In the revival which 
took place in Camberlang in Scotland in 1743, 
this is said of it : "This work has been begun 
and carried on under the influence of the great 
and substantial doctrines of Christianity, pressing 
jointly the necessity of repentance toward God 
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and of holiness 
in all manner of conversation/' In every work 
that has enlarged the borders of Zion with quick- 
ened souls, regenerated by the Holy Ghost, the 
whole truth has been used. There has been no 
healing slightly the hurt of the daughter of God's 
people, saying, Peace ! peace ! when there was no 
peace. The emptying process took place in order 
to being able to entertain Christ. The wretched- 
ness of the former state, as slaves in Satan's sway, 
was manifested, that Jesus might be sought unto 
for peace and power and salvation. That is God's 
process: "I kill, and I make alive; I wound, 
and I heal." Deut. 32 .-39. 

John Wesley, that eminent servant of God, 
being once requested to address a gathering of 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 79 

distinguished persons, chose for his text, "0 
generation of vipers, who hath warned you to 
flee from the wrath to come?" Matt. 3 : 7. The 
noblemen and gentlemen present were highly 
offended, and one of them on leaving the place, 
said to the great preacher : "That sermon was 
only fit for Newgate Gaol." "No," said the fear- 
less Wesley, "there my text would have been, 
1 Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world/ ' John 1 : 29. What a 
keen sense Wesley had of the divine fitness of 
things ! To the bruised and broken-hearted he 
would preach the gospel, while to those living in 
carnal security he would address the rousing, 
awakening, alarming word. May all Christian 
workers have such wisdom ! 

Dr. Nettleton in his evangelistic work, when 
impressions were made, usually advised the indi- 
viduals to retire with stillness, and go directly to 
their closets. He wanted to arouse the sense of 
sinfulness in them that Christ might be more 
truly a Saviour to them. He had no confidence, 
we are told, in those revivals which dispense with 
law work. He did not suppose the work of con- 
viction need be of long continuance, but it was a 
pre-requisite to the seeing anything attractive in 
Christ as a Saviour. Haste at this point makes 



80 THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 

scamped work. Brownlow North was faithful here 
too, being desirous of doing solid work. See his 
treatment of a lady to whom he said, "Madam, 
are you willing to give up the world for Christ ?" 

To carry the gospel to souls not convicted of 
sin, with no sense of their danger, with no desire 
for deliverance, with no hunger after eternal life, 
is to do a profitless work. We are beginning at 
the wrong end. Our words have no meaning. 
It is like speaking of colors to a blind man, of 
water to a man who has never known thirst, of 
bread to a man who has never been hungry. 
There is nothing in the heart to respond. The 
preparation of the heart is not there. And while 
professions may be made through the touch of 
excitement, or sympathy with others doing the like 
act, the professions are worthless, because there 
has not been experienced what is implied in the 
words "When he came to himself." We need 
not marvel that all such, while in the church, are 
like dead, leafless branches on the tree. 

As John the Baptist came that he might by his 
preaching of repentance "make ready a people 
prepared for the Lord," so we need to observe 
this order as that in which God sets us the exam- 
ple, and which is confirmed by every sound and 
enduring work since that time. 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES, 8 1 

VI THE TRUTH MADE EFFECTUAL TO 
SALVATION. 

A medicine may be a specific for a certain 
disease, but if it is not used, it cannot be ex- 
pected to put forth its healing virtue, and remove 
the disease, and restore to health and strength. 
There must be an application of the remedy to 
the sick one. It must be brought into contact 
with the disease. It must be honestly and faith- 
fully used, and that, in the very way the physician 
directs. So it is with the remedy God has pro- 
vided. It is to be received, not simply in the 
word which exhibits it, but in the person who 
embodies it. Whenever we think of the gospel 
we must consider what it says, and of whom it says 
it. To rest in the what and not reach the whom 
is to fail entirely. It is like getting a physician's 
recipe, and never having it made up and admin- 
istered. 

It is a possible thing to hear the gospel story 
and to be delighted with it intellectually, and to 
rest content with the mere intellectual assent to 
it, and imagine that that is all that is needed, 
and so fall short of God's purpose in giving us 
the gospel. Now, we must have this intellectual 
6 



82 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

conception, and assent, but we must at the same 
time have more. Our faith must go deeper ; it 
must not skim the surface, like a swallow flying 
over a lake, it must be like the kingfisher which 
dives deep for its prey — we must have that to 
which the intellectual conception leads, namely, 
the heart-grip. "With the heart man believeth 
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confes- 
sion is made unto salvation/' 

Many rest content with what they suppose to 
be an understanding of the truth, that is, an in- 
tellectual apprehension of it. But such an under- 
standing is very imperfect, very superficial, very 
unsatisfying ; we must go beyond that, and 
allow our spiritual nature to come into play. 
The intellect perceives the truth written ; the 
spiritual nature embraces the truth incarnate. 
The one apprehends the story about the Saviour, 
the other apprehends the Saviour himself. We 
are not saved by a proposition ; we are saved by 
a person. We must therefore not fall short of 
the living person. It is not by believing some- 
thing about him that we are saved, but by be- 
lieving on himself. "Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved." It is not the 
person of Christ barely considered, but as clothed 
upon with the righteousness qualifying him to be 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 83 

a mediator, a Saviour. It is Christ Jesus in the 
completeness of his mediatorial character, as 
"the Lord Jesus Christ" — our prophet, priest 
and king ; who "died for our sins according to 
the Scriptures, and was buried, and rose again 
the third day according to the Scriptures/'' Christ 
as he is offered to us in the gospel. Christ as 
God's sacrificial Lamb who taketh away the sin 
of the world. Christ as God's gift to lost sin- 
ners. Christ as our kinsman redeemer. Christ 
as our Saviour. 

When William H. Hewitson, the saintly min- 
ister of Direlton in Scotland, was nearing his end, 
a friend sat by him quoting texts illustrative of 
God's faithfulness. After his friend had with- 
drawn, he remarked, "texts like these do not give 
me so much comfort as — ' God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life ;' or — ' He that spared 
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, 
how shall he not with him also freely give us all 
things ?' Plain doctrinal statements exhibiting 
the heart of God, are more sustaining to me than 
mere promises. I like to get into contact with 
the living person." That which Hewitson liked 
and longed for, each poor sinner must have, con- 



84 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

tact with the living Saviour. It was when the wo- 
man with the issue of blood touched Christ that 
she was healed. (Luke 8.) It was when the 
blind eyes were brought into contact with Christ 
that sight was restored. (Mark 8. ) It was when 
the leper, who was a mass of corruption and was 
slowly but surely dying on his feet, came to Christ 
and was touched by him, that new life was given, 
and his flesh came again as a little child's, fresh, 
pure, sweet and beautiful. (Mark i.) It was 
when Christ touched the bier on which the widow 
of Nain's son was being borne to the grave, and 
Christ's word went forth, that he arose and was 
restored to his mother. (Luke 7.) 

Contact with Christ is what sinners need to 
give them salvation. And the truth about Christ 
is given to lead up to Christ, and to bring us to 
cast ourselves upon him unreservedly. And we 
do that by faith. That is, the spirit of man goes 
out unto, and embraces the spiritually present 
Christ : commits itself to him with entire sur- 
render : keeps nothing back. Does what Paul 
enjoins in Rom. 12:1, "I beseech you, therefore, 
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present 
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
God, which is your reasonable service." 

No one who reads attentively the New Testa- 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 8 5 

ment will imagine that faith is a simple act. To- 
day we hear much of the simple gospel, simple 
faith, and so forth. We have, we fear, too many 
"simples" We have so sought to make every- 
thing easy, that the grandeur and sublimity have 
passed away from God's truth, as the glory of a 
day-dawn among the Alps passes away toward 
noon. 

In the New Testament we have different kinds 
of faith exemplified. And these are all put into 
the record as beacons of warning to anxious souls, 
to save them from everlasting destruction. 

(1) There we have one named as a believer — for 
the record takes each man at his own estimate 
of himself, and allows events to tell the truth in 
the case — Simon Magus ; who beforetime used 
sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, 
giving out that himself was some great one : to 
whom they all gave heed, from the least to the 
greatest, saying, "This man is the great power 
of God." When he saw the people believing, he 
believed also, and was baptized ; and continued 
with Philip seeing the miracles and signs that 
were done. And seeing also Peter, by prayer 
and the laying on of hands, impart the Holy 
Ghost — his whole character was called forth into 
the light. He offered them money, saying, "Give 



86 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

me also the power, that on whomsoever I lay 
hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost/' But 
Peter said unto him, " Thy money perish with 
thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of 
God may be purchased with money. Thou hast 
neither part nor lot in this matter ; for thy heart 
is not right in the sight of God. Repent, there- 
fore, of this wickedness ; and pray God, if per- 
haps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven 
thee : for I perceive that thou art in the gall of 
bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity/' Acts 
ch. 8. What kind of faith is this ? It is not a 
saving faith. It is a faith professed for selfish 
ends. Simon wished to do a good stroke of 
business. We may call it a commercial faith. It 
did not reach out beyond himself notwithstand- 
ing his baptism and his continuing with Philip 
and Peter and John. All he heard did not pen- 
etrate the darkness of his mind, or quicken the 
deadness of his heart. How hard it is to help a 
purely selfish man who seeks only selfish ends ! 

(2) Our Lord in his parable of the sower gives 
us two instances of other kinds of faith in the 
Word. Both at first seem fair. They go on for 
a time prosperously, but they do not endure 
unto the end. They both fail, though it be 
through different causes. One fails through lack 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 87 

of depth, the other because of the strength of 
antagonistic forces. This is the record : "These 
are they which are sown on stony ground ; who 
when they have heard the Word, immediately re- 
ceive it with gladness, and have no root in them- 
selves, and so endure but for a time; afterwards, 
when affliction or persecution ariseth for the 
Word's sake, immediately they are offended. 
And these are they which are sown among thorns; 
such as hear the Word, and the cares of this 
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the 
lusts of other things entering in, choke the Word 
and it becometh unfruitful." A superficial faith is 
a powerless faith. A weak faith is overborne and 
does not conquer. A true, saving faith is armed 
with divine might. It is a grandly victorious 
faith. Its life is not dried up by the scorching 
heat, nor drawn away by the strength of other 
interests. "This is the victory which overcom- 
eth the world, even our faith." Faith is the vic- 
tory, because it takes hold upon the mighty God 
of Jacob. "Who is he that overcometh the world, 
but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of 
God!" 

(3) James, in his Epistle, marks another kind 
of faith that is not saving. That is belief in the 
existence of God. "Thou believest there is one 



88 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES, 

God ; thou doest well ; the devils also believe, 
and tremble/' Faith in God, that awakens no 
sense of the sin in one's own soul and of the 
infinite distance between the sinning man and 
the Holy God, and therefore no sense of the need 
of a mediator, is an exceedingly imperfect faith. 
It does not go deep down into the soul. It affects 
the evil spirit more deeply — "the devils believe, 
and tremble/' but while terror seizes upon them, 
they do not repent, they do not seek mercy, they 
do not turn to God's Son. They are held fast 
by the cords of their sins, "and tremble," hor- 
ror springing up at the thought of God. 

(4) Another kind of faith is dealt with by 
James in his Epistle, which we may call dead 
faith. "What doth it profit, my brethren, though 
a man say he hath faith, and have not works? 
Can faith save him ? If a brother or sister be 
naked and destitute of daily food, and one of 
you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye 
warmed and filled ; notwithstanding ye give them 
not those things which are needful to the body ; 
what doth it profit ? Even so faith, if it have 
not works, is dead being alone. As the body 
without the spirit is dead, so faith without works 
is dead also/' 

How many only "say" that they have faith ! 






THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 89 

It is a mere profession of faith. An empty profes- 
sion, that has neither reality nor life in it ! This 
James calls "a dead failh." How tremendously 
deceitful such a faith is! It is a delusion that de- 
stroys the soul. It it this that our Lord speaks 
so strongly against, and paints a picture over, to 
impress it powerfully on the imagination. "Not 
every one that saith unto me, Lord ! Lord ! shall 
enter into the kingdom of heaven : but he that 
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven/' 
Then what a disclosure he makes: "Many will 
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not 
prophesied in thy name ? And in thy name have 
cast out devils ? And in thy name done many 
wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto 
them, I never knew you : depart from me, ye 
that work iniquity. Therefore, whosoever hear- 
eth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will 
liken him unto a wise man, which built his house 
upon a rock ; and the rain descended, and the 
floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon 
that house, and it fell not, for it was founded 
upon a rock. And every one that heareth these 
sayings of mine and doeth them not, shall be 
likened unto a foolish man, which built his house 
upon the sand : and the rain descended, and the 
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon 



90 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 



that house, and it fell ; and great was the fall of 
it." Matt. 7:21-27. Marked off from all other 
exercises of faith is the faith that is saving. What 
are its characteristics P 

1 st. As to its Object. Christ Jesus in his sacri- 
ficial character is the alone object of saving faith. 
''Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved." Christ is the object, the one 
object of saving faith. Sometimes other objects 
are looked at, such as the mercy of God. But 
there is no mercy for man save in, and through, 
Jesus Christ. Sometimes it is the Promises of 
God. But all the promises are yea and amen in 
Christ. They come to us in Him and through 
Him. 

Sometimes it is the Word of God. But Christ 
is the incarnate Word, and all the written word 
finds its fulfilment in Him. After his resur- 
rection Christ said to his disciples, " These are 
the words which I spake unto you while I was 
yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, 
which were written in the law of Moses, and 
in the prophets and in the psalms concerning 
me." 

Sometimes it is pardon, or peace, or power, or 
some other benefit Christ bestows, that is pro- 
posed to our faith as an object, but these are 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 91 

all secondary and subsidiary — Christ Jesus alone, 
is the one Supreme Object of saving faith ; and 
he is held up before us as the brazen serpent was 
in the wilderness, in his death for sin ; " Behold 
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of 
the world/' 

2d. As to the Act of faith itself. It is not an 
act limited to the intellect. It engages alike the 
intellect and the heart. It goes into the depths 
of the nature. It is an act of the complete man. 
Philip said to the Eunuch when he asked him : 
" What doth hinder me to be baptized ?" "If 
thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest ?' ' 
Philip had been telling the Eunuch about Jesus 
as the Lamb God provided for the sacrifice ; and 
so the Eunuch replied, "I believe that Jesus 
Christ is the Son of God. ' ' He therefore accepted 
Christ in his divine character as making atone- 
ment for sin. 

Saving faith is trusting in Christ alone, and 
with all our heart : the mind, the will, the heart 
consenting together in accepting him. It is giv- 
ing ourselves up to him without reserve, as we 
do in respect to a physician when we are serious- 
ly ill. It is relying upon him as our righteous- 
ness before God. He is the End (or the fulfil- 
ment) of the law for righteousness to every one 



9 2 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 



that believeth. He is the Lord our righteous- 
ness. In him God is well pleased, and there- 
fore all who trust in him — hide in him as their 
City of Refuge — are well-pleasing to God. He 
looks upon them in the face of his Anointed: and 
for his sake pardons their sins and accepts their 
persons, and bestows upon them the gift of eter- 
nal life. Faith unites the soul to Christ. How 
variously it is represented ! Faith is the eye of 
the soul, so it looks upon Christ with full gaze. 
Faith is the arm of the soul, so it embraces Christ 
as its own. Faith is the hand of the soul, so it 
receives Christ as God's free gift. Faith is the 
mouth of the soul, so it feeds upon Christ as the 
bread from heaven. Faith is the foot of the soul, 
so it comes to Christ for life. Faith is the bond 
of union between Christ and the soul — "Faith in 
his blood/' Rom. 3:25. His sacrificial charac- 
ter is always at the front. 

Faith that is saving always respects Christ Je- 
sus as its Chief Object. So our Lord repeatedly 
declared to those who came to him in their 
trouble and sickness, "Thy faith hath saved thee, 
go in peace." The truth is made effectual unto 
salvation by a whole-hearted faith. A faith that 
sweeps into the depths of the soul engaging the 
affections and the will in a complete surrender to 






THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 



93 



Christ. Thus Horatius Bonar sings his own ex- 
perience : 

11 1 heard the voice of Jesus say, 

' Come unto me and rest : 
Lay down, thou weary one. lay down 

Thy head upon my breast !' 
I came to Jesus as I was, 

Weary and worn and sad, 
I found in him a resting-place 

And he has made me glad. 

" I heard the voice of Jesus say, 

1 Behold, I freely give 
The living water : thirsty one, 

Stoop down and drink and live !' 
I came to Jesus, and I drank 

Of that life-giving stream : 
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, 

And now I live in Him." 

Faith that is heart-deep never fails. Appro- 
priating Christ Jesus as the gospel presents him, 
brings into the heart pardon and peace. ''Being 
justified by faith we have peace with God, through 
our Lord Jesus Christ/ ' Rom. 5:1. To sum up 
all that may be said on this head, nothing clearer 
or more pointed can be found than what is said 
in a venerable book — not so well known or as 
much thought of to-day as its merits entitle it to — 
in answer to the question, What is faith in Jesus 
Christ ? " Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, 
whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for 
salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel/' 



94 THE TR UTH THA T SA I ES. 



VII HOW TO PRESENT THE GOSPEL. 

We cannot over-estimate the value of a proper 
presentation of the gospel. This is often half 
the battle : in many cases, much more. All gifts 
are greatly enhanced in value by the mode of 
conveying them — not intrinsically, but to the 
appreciative sense of the recipient. And so it is 
with the greatest of all gifts — the unspeakable 
gift of God. How great pains should be taken, 
therefore, so to bring the good news before the 
mind as that it shall be attractive and desirable. 
McCheyne must needs have beaten oil for the 
sanctuary. The best powers of the best men are 
needed for this the greatest of all works, the work 
of the gospel ministry. 

" 'T is net a cause of small import 
The paster's care dema::i = , 
But what might nil an angel's heart, 
And filled a Saviour's hands." 

The saving truth of the gospel ought to be pre- 
sented 

I. Intelligently, as coming from an under- 
standing heart and fitted for one. The under- 
standing is the avenue of approach to the heart. 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 95 

and to gain that the hearer must understand. 
There is no reasonable hope for him till he does 
understand. Hence Philip asked the Ethiopian 
eunuch, " Understandest thou what thou read- 
est?" He evidently did not understand, so the 
evangelist opened his mouth and began at the 
Scripture the eunuch read, and preached unto 
him Jesus. For the same reason our Lord puts 
special emphasis on understanding. He asked 
his disciples who had heard many of his parables, 
"Have ye understood all these things ?" And 
speaking of the parable of the sower, he makes 
this twofold reference to the understanding of 
the truth : "When any one heareth the word of 
the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then Com- 
eth the wicked one and catcheth away that which 
was sown in his heart. This is he which received 
seed by the wayside." " He which received seed 
into the good ground is he that heareth the word 
and understandeth it ; which also beareth fruit, 
and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some 
sixty, some thirty." It was a special grace shown 
to the apostles after the resurrection: "Then 
opened he their understandings, that they might 
understand the Scriptures." 

The gospel ought to issue forth from the speak- 
er' s mind as a pencil of light, armed with a pene- 



96 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

trative force, as something apprehended and as 
something apprehensible. It ought to be made 
to stand up before the mind as an Egyptian pyra- 
mid or a great Alps, which being once seen will 
never be forgotten. Wherever else there is mist 
or haze there ought to be none here. In the deep 
things of God the preacher may grope his way 
sometimes, owing to imperfect experience or bro- 
ken knowledge — for he walks confidently only so 
far as he knows, that is, has spiritual experience ; 
but here it never ought to be so. He has ac- 
cepted Christ, and he knows on what ground ; he 
is acquainted with the difficulties attending that 
acceptance, and he knows its blessed results. 
This is a province of knowledge and experience 
all his own, and in this he has what places him 
at an immense advantage in the intelligent pre- 
sentation of the truth. 

The Rev. Andrew H. Bonar says in reference 
to this : " Surely in going forth to speak for God 
a man may well be overawed ! Surely in putting 
forth his hand to sow the seed of the kingdom a 
man may even tremble ! And surely we should 
aim at nothing else than to pour forth the truth 
upon our people through the channel of our own 
living and deeply-affected souls/' It is not to 
be hearsay. We are witnesses, and no court ad- 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 97 

mits a witness to give hearsay evidence. We 
must tell what we ourselves know. That is what 
John does in his first epistle, 1:1-4: "That which 
was from the beginning, which we have heard, 
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have 
looked upon, and our hands have handled of the 
word of life (for the life was manifested and we 
have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto 
you that eternal life, which was with the Father 
and was manifested unto us) ; that which we 
have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye 
also may have fellowship with us ; and truly our 
fellowship is with the Father and with his Son 
Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto 
you that your joy may be full." 

We have read of an earnest young preacher, 
who on his first going out from the theological 
seminary to his life-work, felt the need, both for 
the repose of his own heart and for the success of 
the ministry to which he believed he was called, 
of something beyond all that he had found in 
a course of systematic theology. Among other 
methods of satisfying himself, he was in the habit 
of conversing with experienced Christians as to 
the ground and nature of their faith. Meeting 
with an aged woman, in humble station but of a 
gracious spirit, he asked her, ' ' What is the gos- 
7 



9 3 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES, 

pel you believe, and how do you believe it?" 
She replied, " God is satisfied with his Son — that is 
the gospel I believe ; and / am satisfied with him 
too — that is how I believe it. ' ' Experience of the 
truth is the mighty leverage every heaven-called 
minister has in the proclamation of the gospel. 
He, like Paul, knows whom he believes. It 
must be remembered that conviction is sought, 
immediate conviction, strong and effectual con- 
viction, to lead the soul to turn from wickedness 
to God. And therefore the intelligence springing 
from the love of the heart — for all our intellectual 
action is moral at the base — the light of the mind, 
the power of the imagination and the force of the 
will ; in fine, the concurrence of the whole being 
is demanded. The entire man must utter himself 
in the truth preached ; else many will listen as 
Tennyson's Northern Farmer did : 

" And I hallus corned to's choorch afoor my Sally wur dead, 
And 'eerd 'im a hummin' away loike a buzzard-clock ower my 

yead, 
An' I niver know'd what a mean'd, but I thowt a a'd summut to 

say, 
An' I thowt a said what a owt to 'a' said — an' then J corned 

away." 

They will go to church and come away untouched 
and uninstructed, believing only that the minis- 
ter had something to say to fill up his measure of 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. gg 

duty, but which, alas, was nothing of any partic- 
ular interest to them ! Beloved, we have the 
salvation of souls in hand, and that ought to in- 
spire us with a high and holy ambition to make 
the cross tower to heaven, and stretch its arms 
athwart the earth and fill it with redeeming light 
and love. 

II. Largely. By that I mean with rich vari- 
ety. It has many sides, many heights and many 
depths. It has vast logical statements for the 
understanding. It has glowing warmth for the 
affections of the heart. It has a righteousness 
that commends it to the conscience. It has in- 
cisive appeals for the practical spirit. It has, 
therefore, large and consecrated media through 
which it may come to men. There are the altar 
forms of the Old Testament and the cross forms 
of the New Testament. There are the parabolic 
pictures our Lord has painted, and the strongly 
legal presentation of his apostle Paul, and the 
paternal and judicial relations of God to men — 
each of which is pregnant with power in the pres- 
entation of it. 

Here let me insert the outline of a sermon of 
Thomas Boston, the author of " The Fourfold 
State/' and much else worth studying if one will. 
The text is il Who hath believed our report, etc,' 1 



I oo THE TR UTH THA T SA VES 

" (i) The gospel is a report from heaven of salva- 
tion for poor sinners, from sin and the wrath of 
God. (2) The gospel is the report of the crucified 
Christ made over to sinners, as the device of 
heaven for their salvation. (3) The gospel is the 
report of a righteousness wherein guilty ones may 
stand before a Holy God. (4) The gospel is the 
report of pardon, under the great seal of heaven, 
in Christ, to all who will take it in him. 
(5) The gospel is the report of a Physician who 
cures all the diseases of the soul infallibly and 
freely, and respects no patients. (6) The gospel 
is the report of a feast for hungry souls, to which 
all are bid welcome, Christ himself being the 
matter and the maker of it too. (7) The gospel 
is the report of a treasure. In it are the precious, 
promises, within them precious Christ with his 
merit, like the gold mentioned in Rev. 3:18. 
(8) The gospel is the report of a victory won by 
Christ Jesus over sin, Satan, death and all the 
world, and that in favor of all that will join in 
with the glorious Conqueror. To name no more — 
the gospel is the report of a peace purchased by 
the blood of Christ for poor sinners and offered 
to them." That is a specimen of rich variety in 
a sermon. It is rich enough to form a course of 
sermons. And it has this noticeable fact, that 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. iox 

amid its variety there is no losing sight of the 
gospel fact, that always stands forth clearly and 
conspicuously. It is refeshing to observe this. 
It does not get covered over and hidden out of 
sight under any figurative representation. These 
rather help it to shine out in attractive guise. 

It has adaptations to every condition in which 
man may be found. There are the fallen, the 
degraded, the hopeless, the weary, the wander- 
ing, the hardened, the proud, the selfish, the lost. 
Every class whatever may be its character may be 
met by a skilled workman of the Lord. The 
Christian worker must always consider with whom 
he deals — the character, life, tendencies, tempta- 
tions, position, mental and moral condition of 
the person — if he would speed. If he have not 
large and trustworthy intuitions, he must have 
wide experience, so that he may not always draw 
the bow at a venture. That must be done some- 
times, but not always. Else to what purpose are 
our human sympathies and knowledge, our pas- 
toral visitations and services, and our intimate 
human brotherhood ? It is said of Luther that 
he spoke as if he had been inside a man, so thor- 
oughly did he know how to address his different 
states and moods. Tyndal, the early English 
reformer, says at the close of his sermon on justi- 



102 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

fying faith : l c Because terms be dark to them 
that be not expert and exercised, we always set 
out our meaning with clear examples, reporting 
ourselves to the hearts and consciences of all 
men/' Did not our Lord himself set all his min- 
isters an example of the first order in respect to 
the use of figures and illustrations in making the 
truth at once simple and beautiful and attractive ? 
His employment of the word "tike" opens the 
door wide to the use of all kinds of metaphorical 
and figurative expression. He paints pictures so 
largely himself that the four gospels are four 
grand picture galleries filled with the very best. 
Time is never lost spent in study there ! Paul 
became all things to all men, that he might save 
some. A study of the addresses of the apostles 
to different audiences at Rome, Athens, Jerusa- 
lem, Corinth, Ephesus, and other places, to the 
religious Jews and the heathen Gentiles, will aid 
the minister much in a large and various presen- 
tation of his message. We are not left in dark- 
ness as to the mode of dealing with different 
classes. The gospel went all the way from Jeru- 
salem to Rome, and in its course touched all 
classes and characters, and illumined and con- 
verted and saved all classes. Few new questions 
arise now, in addition to what were broached 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 1 03 

then. We may get them at new angles, or in new 
relations, but they are the old questions dressed 
over again in fantastic garb, and strutting upon 
the stage with new life. Solomon's word is con- 
firmed in every age: "There is no new thing 
under the sun." In the Memoir of David Mac- 
lagan, by Dr. Norman L. Walker, we meet with 
this seed thought in reference to the point in 
hand : "I met David McLaren to-day, who told 
me that he was asked by a minister the other day 
what, in his opinion, was the best way of meet- 
ing modern doubt. He replied, that he did not 
think modern doubt was materially different from 
ancient doubt, and that he thought the old recipe 
of preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified would 
be found now, as then, the most efficient anti- 
dote." 

This is a point of so great importance and one 
in which ministers fail, more, perhaps, than any 
other, that we cannot but quote the wise and 
memorable words of Henry Ward Beecher, in his 
first series of Lectures on Preaching, delivered to 
the students of Yale College : "Now in order to 
reach and help the varying phases of your con- 
gregation, you must take human nature as you 
find it, in its broad range. Understand this, the 
same law which led the apostle to make himself 



1 04 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

a Greek to the Greeks, and a Jew to the Jews, 
and to put himself under the law with those who 
were under the law ; and that everlasting good 
sense of conformity in these things, for the sake 
of taking hold of men where they can be reached, 
and lifting them up, requires you to study human 
nature as it is, and not as people tell you it ought 
to be. If a man can be saved by pure intellec- 
tual preaching, let him have it. If others require 
a predominance of emotion, provide that for 
them. If by others the truth is taken more easi- 
ly through the imagination, give it to them in the 
form of imagination. If there are still others who 
demand it in the form of facts and rules, see that 
they have it in that form. Take men as it has 
pleased God to make them ; and let your preach- 
ing, so far as concerns the selection of material, 
and the mode and method by which you are 
presenting the truth, follow the wants of the per- 
sons themselves, and not simply the measure of 
your own minds/ ' "You are not practised 
workmen until you understand human nature, 
and know how to touch it with divine truth — 
until you comprehend the divine truth in so 
many of its bearings upon the human soul, that 
you can work with tolerable facility from the 
truth that is in Jesus to that which is in man, and 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 105 

quite as often can reverse the process. That is 
the study." How strongly this commends itself 
to our judgment ! But how hard it is to reduce 
to practice ! It calls for pains and prayer. 

III. Lovingly — under the impulse of its own 
blessed charity. Love in the heart, with its ten- 
der sympathy, its great compassion, its wise con- 
siderateness, is the grand force for throwing the 
arrow of the truth into other hearts. There is 
nothing comparable to it. It stands peerless in 
its power. Mr. D. L. Moody in one of his meet- 
ings in Edinburgh, speaking to young men, said 
that he wanted love in speaking to them, for he 
had noticed God used him most when he was 
most filled with the spirit of love to souls and to 
Christ, and he implored them to plead that he 
might have that spirit. 

The Rev. John Macpherson in giving the secret 
of the success of Duncan Matheson in soul-win- 
ning, says : ' ' The right side of the ship where the 
great draft of fishes is to be got, is simple unques- 
tioning, childlike faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Was this then the great secret of his success in 
winning souls ? I think not. Was it intellectual 
gifts ? No. Many possess larger endowments of 
mind who are less successful. Was it his ready 
utterance or force of speech ? No. Many are 



106 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

more eloquent, with fewer and meaner results. 
Was it the holy consistency of his life? No. 
Many saintlier men are iess useful. All these 
things, especially his prayerfulness and faith, 
doubtless contributed to his success in the Lord's 
work ; but the great SECRET, I firmly believe, 
lay in his intense, self-denying love of souls. God 
always blesses love. ' ' 

Robert Murray McCheyne was exceedingly ten- 
der in his spirit. And the more awful the subject 
the more it dealt with the severe aspects of the 
divine character and action the more tender he 
became. He was awed by the contemplation of 
the matter into a loving sympathy with his fellow- 
men, and spake words that won the heart. There 
was no repulsive hardness in him or about him ; 
all was love. This, with his extensive and clear 
biblical knowledge, was the secret of his success. 
W. C. Burns, the apostolic missionary, writes in 
his Diary: "I was compelled by my mother to 
beware of harsh expressions in preaching and 
prayer, and told by J. that she thought there was 
danger in my losing the former sweetness, as she 
said, of my manner in preaching, for an unpleas- 
ant sternness. I thanked the Lord for this coun- 
sel, and was told by her afterwards that I had 
been enabled to correct the fault/' 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES 



107 



One may, by the very desire of making the 
truth impressive, become harsh, and in his in- 
tense earnestness, look fierce. Anxiety to save 
the hearer causes one to lose sight of what 
seem minor matters, but which after all are not 
minor, because they make deep and lasting im- 
pressions. We, therefore, ought to be careful in 
every look, motion, accent, lest offence be given 
where we desire to draw and win. To attend to 
these might seem to be exceedingly oppressive, 
but we can easily do so by keeping ourselves in 
the love of God. If our spirit is sweet, all its 
manifestations will be. Realizing the value of 
the soul will melt the soul with love. Jesus, who 
knew its preciousness, wept in view of its loss. 
What can be compared with it ! Matthew Henry 
was wont to say, "I should think it a greater 
happiness to gain one soul to the Lord Jesus 
Christ than mountains of silver and gold to my- 
self." In 1704 John Howe, preaching from 
Luke 2 1 st, was heard by the great commentator, 
and at the close of the sermon " he said," says 
Mr. Henry, "what I shall never forget. ' I would 
deal for your souls as for my own, and for myself 
I declare before you all, I depend purely upon 
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal 
life/" 



108 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

How sweetly and strongly love breathes through 
all these utterances ! It transmutes them into 
the gold of the heavenly city ! It makes them liv- 
ing founts of inspiration for all Christian workers. 
There is a mighty power in love. It is girded 
with sweetest attractions, benignest influences 
and most convincing forces. Love is also very 
suggestive. It is fruitful as the vine. Puritan 
Brooks saith : "He that loves cannot be bar- 
ren.' ' 

Love will clothe the subject in the most attrac- 
tive attire. "A word fitly spoken — and love al- 
ways speaks fitly — is like apples of gold in pic- 
tures of silver/' As Solomon sought out accept- 
able words so must the gospel minister. How 
much of meaning a word sometimes carries be- 
yond that which it bears as a current coin ! It 
may bring back the music of the early home, the 
scent of the bean fields or hawthorn hedges, the 
view of the dear countryside where life was all a 
sweet dream and hope dashed the wide outlook 
with glory. It may touch the deepest in us, 
awakening the memories of a mother's love or of 
a father's faithfulness. It may quicken a dead 
soul and cause it to rise up and go forth in paths 
of righteousness. A beautiful story is told of the 
late M. Gustave Dorg. He was engaged in paint- 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 1 09 

ing the face of Christ in one of his pictures, when 
a lady friend of his came into his studio and be- 
gan gazing most intently at the face almost com- 
pleted. As she was gazing the artist retired from 
the picture to one corner of the room, and looked 
at his friend's face as she looked at the face on 
the picture. Turning round she said, "M. Dore, 
why do you look at me so anxiously?" "I 
wanted to watch/' he replied, "the impression 
that face produced -on you — and I think you like 
it?" "Yes, I do," she said, " and do you know 
that I was thinking that you could not paint 
such a face of Christ unless you loved him?" 
"Unless I loved him," replied Dor6, "well, I 
trust I do, most sincerely : but as I love him 
more, I shall paint him better." So is it with 
the preacher as well as the painter. The more we 
love the Lord the better we shall picture him to 
the poor lost sinner. Oh, for more love to Him ! 
deeper, mightier, more unselfish love to Him ! 
We can join hearts with Mrs. Prentiss, the daugh- 
ter of the sainted Payson : 

" More love to thee, O Christ, 

More love to thee ! 
Hear thou the prayer I make 

On bended knee ; 
This is my earnest plea : 
More love, O Christ, to thee, 

More love to the 



1 10 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

No fitter prayer than this could we offer, and 
that at all times, daily through the livelong year, 
morning, noon, and night. 

IV. Livixgly. He should speak it from the 
heart ; with all the warmth, tenderness, strong 
yet subdued feeling that it awakens. He should 
be under its power, appreciating its tremendous 
issues, realizing the immense meaning of its 
words, and evidently blessed by its merciful com- 
munications. How much assurance it will give 
to the heart ! How marvellously it will enrich 
the soul ! How grandly it will ennoble and even 
glorify the life ! If any one should be a living 
epistle, surely it is the minister of the truth. He 
above all others should show forth the praises of 
God, in his enjoying in his own spirit the truth 
that brings peace to the conscience and rest to 
the soul, and a mighty inflow of strength to the 
whole nature. The command is, "Lift up thy 
voice like a trumpet, and cry aloud," and that 
implies health, sound health, and strength, and 
resolution, and vigorous action. The apostles 
were bold and fearless in the proclamation of the 
truth. They spoke with an intense earnestness 
that arrested attention and made men listen. 
They were not cold, nor heartless, nor indifferent, 
but the very opposite — they felt the thrill of the 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 1 T 1 

truth through their whole being. Faith awakens 
feeling — it is like the fire beneath the boiler that 
changes the cold, dead water into the mighty 
force of steam which drives the complex machin- 
ery of the manufactory and makes a thousand 
spindles whirl. Often the minister may feel so 
intensely and speak so forcefully that he may be 
accounted mad. Paul was regarded as "beside 
himself." Richard Baxter 

"Preached as never sure to preach again, 
And as a dying man to dying men." 

Frederick Robertson observes with keen in- 
sight : "It is not a minister's wisdom, but his 
conviction which imparts itself to others. Noth- 
ing gives life but life. Real flame kindles other 
flame." This may be proven any day. A ser- 
vant girl in a house where Murray McCheyne 
once stayed, described him as " deein' to hae 
folk converted." A minister in the North was so 
impressed with his daily life of holiness that he 
said, ' ' He is the most Jesus-like man I ever met 
with," and went to his room to weep. What an 
influence he exerted ! How true it is, " the tran- 
script of the heart hath the greatest force on the 
hearts of others." 

Explorers in the arctic regions have made 
burning-glasses of bits of ice. These collected 



H2 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

the rays of the sun into a focus and kindled the 
wood on which they fell, while the fingers that 
held them were frozen by them. The storied 
window of the cathedral sheds light of variegated 
hues upon the worshippers, quickening them 
and* cheering them and blessing them, while it 
remains cold and unblessed. But ministers of 
the gospel are not, cannot be, like cathedral win- 
dow or ice-made burning-glass — they must have 
hearts of love to lead them to speak. They must 
believe and therefore speak. As one of our old 
Puritans declares : ' ' Men of no resolution or 
of weak resolution will be little serviceable to the 
good of souls. Such watchmen as will be free 
from the blood of souls, and be serviceable to the 
interests of Christ's kingdom in turning sinners 
from darkness to light, must be men of spirit 
and resolution." How livingly Livingstone pre- 
sented the truth on that memorable occasion at 
the kirk of Shotts ! He had got through with 
the discussion of his subject, which lay in Ezekiel 
36 : 26, 27, and was on the point of closing his 
discourse when a few drops of rain began to fall, 
and when the people began to put on their cov- 
erings, he asked them if they had any shelter 
from the drops of divine wrath, and was thus led 
to enlarge for nearly another hour in exhorting 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. \ \ 3 

them to flee to Christ, with so much of the power 
of God that about five hundred persons were con- 
verted. That prince of theologians, John Owen, 
in his preface to his treatise, "The Grace and 
Duty of being Spiritually Minded," observes, 
"Leaving others to the choice of their own 
methods and designs, I acknowledge that there 
are two things whereby I regulate my work in 
the whole course of my ministry. To impart those 
truths of whose power I hope I have had, in some 
measure, a real experience ; and to press those 
duties which present occasions, temptations and 
other circumstances do render necessary to be 
attended to in a peculiar manner, are the things 
which I would principally apply myself to in the 
work of teaching others." 

When one is really alive to the truth, he be- 
comes one with it in heart, in thought, in pur- 
pose. He comes to understand how David 
uttered those imprecatory Psalms, entering so 
deeply into sympathy with the righteousness of 
God that it seems his own. He is one with God 
in tender love, in gracious sympathy, and in holy 
action. Do not all listeners say : 

" Tell me the story softly, 

With earnest tones, and grave ; 
Remember ! I 'm the sinner 
Whom Jesus came to save. 



1 14 THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 

Tell me the story always, 

If you "would really be, 
In any time of trouble, 

A comforter to me." 

V. Prayerfully. We cannot be successful 
without prayer. That is, we cannot prosper 
without God. Prayer takes hold of God and 
seeks his help. It relies on him. It engages 
God on behalf of his own truth, and the revela- 
tion of Jesus Christ as a living, loving, all-suffi- 
cient Saviour. It is the expression of our con- 
sciousness of inherent weakness and of our faith 
in the almightiness of God. It pleads for the 
fulfilment of his promises. It seeks the wisdom 
that is profitable to direct. It brings into the 
man the grace that fits him to be a vessel God 
may deign to use. If we depend on God in 
every work to which we put our hands, how 
much more should we do so in this ! In this 
work he is most deeply interested, and he alone 
can render it successful. "The preparations of 
the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is 
from the Lord/' and this in both preacher and 
hearer alike. Matthew Henry writes thus on 
one occasion : "I endeavored to wrestle this day 
with God in secret and at his table for two things 
(and oh that I might prevail) the heart of the up- 
right and the tongue of the learned. / would 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 



"5 



excel in my work. ' ' Richard Trail, in his sermon 
on "By what means ministers may best win 
souls/' says: "Ministers should pray much for 
themselves, for they have their corruptions like 
other men, and have temptations that none but 
ministers are assaulted with. They should pray 
for their message. How sweet and easy it is for 
a minister (and likely it is to be the more profit- 
able to the people) to bring forth the Scriptures 
as food to the souls of his people, that he has 
had opened to his own heart by the power of the 
Holy Ghost in the exercise of faith and love to 
prayer. A minister should pray for a blessing on 
the Word ; and he should be much in seeking 
God, particularly for his people. It may be this 
may be the reason why some ministers of meaner 
gifts and parts are more successful than some that 
are far above them in abilities ; not because they 
preach better, so much as they pray more. 
Many good sermons are lost for lack of much prayer 
in study. Many illustrious examples must rise to 
the mind of every intelligent reader, enforcing the 
precept, "prayerfully." Luther's long season of 
communion with God : Bradford and Whitfield 
studying the Bible on their knees : John Welsh's 
night wrestlings with God on behalf of his people ; 
and above all, our Saviour's going apart to pray, 



Il6 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

and spending the whole night in the silence of 
the mountains in prayer for new strength for new 
service. Dr. Andrewes, who was dean of West- 
minster at the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, was said to have spent a great part of five 
hours every day in prayer and devotion. Philip 
Doddridge used to say, "The more I pray the 
better I study/' One of the most refreshing and 
inspiring books of our time is ' * Diary and Let- 
ters of A. A. Bonar, D.D," and from the day 
that he preached for Mr. Purris, of Jedburgh, to 
the close of his life, prayer predominates. We 
find him mourning his lack of prayer, his not hav- 
ing prayed enough, his having worked too much 
and prayed too little. Think of this ! "What a 
sore night I have had in my bed, tossing in pain 
till morning, as well as all yesterday. I see it to 
be a chastisement from my Father, because I was 
taking too much time for active work, and too 
little for prayer/' Again, "Too much work 
without corresponding prayer. To-day setting 
myself to fast and pray a little. The Lord seemed 
forthwith to send a dew upon my soul/' What 
an example of prayerfulness is George Muller, of 
Bristol ? How grandly he honors God in waiting 
upon Him through weeks, months, and even 
years — aye, and scores of years — for some particu- 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. ny 

lar person or some particular thing. His life 
reveals to us what believing prayer is ! 

Who can tell how much prayer had to do with 
the success of "The Sinner's Friend" by John 
Vine Hall ? He tells us that he took twelve 
copies of the book, and kneeling before the Lord, 
implored his blessing upon the work. And that 
blessing came and is coming still. Richard Knill 
was eminently a man of prayer, and did every- 
thing in the spirit of prayer and therefore was a 
successful man. On his way to Madras he said 
to his fellow-passengers : "Now let us turn this 
ship into a Bethel ; let us have family prayer 
every day and sermons on Sunday ; it will sweet- 
en the voyage, endear us to one another and draw 
down the divine blessing." Rowland Hill's cry 
was "Lord, help ! Lord, help !" All our work 
ought to be begun, carried on, and ended with 
prayer. 

" More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of." 

But men of faith know this and act upon it. Let 
it never be forgotten. Prayer moves the hand 
that sustains the world. It touches the heart of 
the Father that is the centre of all goodness and 
love and light- — the fountain of living waters for 
a dying world. Praying without ceasing will 



1 1 8 THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 

cause the darkness of night to flee away, and day- 
break will come like a sweet summer's morning — 
beautiful, musical and fragrant — on the weary, 
troubled, desolate soul, and bring it into the rest 
of God. 

VI. Scripturally. We honor God most when 
we employ his own words in the preaching of the 
gospel. Indeed the command is, " Preach the 
word. ' ' Often the word of God is covered up by 
a mass of illustrative incidents, and the attention 
of the hearer is drawn away from, rather than 
attracted to the statement God makes. This is 
always an evil. It defeats the object the preacher 
has, or ought to have, in view. We believe with 
that earnest and greatly honored servant of God, 
Richard Baxter, "that the truths of God do per- 
form their work more by their divine authority 
and proper evidence, and material excellency than 
by any ornaments of fleshly wisdom/' The men 
who have been most used in doing solid work, 
work triat stands the test of life, and of death, 
and of judgment, have all been scriptural preach- 
ers. The Bible has been the sword with which 
they have gone into battle, as did their Lord into 
the temptation of the wilderness. It has been 
the fountain whence they have drawn living water 
for dying souls. It has been the throbbing, beat- 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. ng 

ing heart that has sent forth its streams of conso- 
lation and comfort and joy to troubled hearts. It 
has been a light shining in a dark place. It has 
been the voice of God directing, the hand of God 
helping, aye saving lost sinners. As it has been, 
so is it still, he succeeds most effectually in doing 
the work of God who employs the instrument 
God provides. How scriptural are John McNeil, 
and Moody, and Meyer ! Read Boston or Ber- 
ridge or Brownlow North or Nettleton or Finney 
or Whitefield or any other man who has been 
largely used of God, and he is found to be de- 
cidedly a Bible preacher. William C. Burns and 
Robert Murray McCheyne and Andrew A. Bonar 
and Jonathan Edwards and Edward Payson and 
David Brainerd, all of whom lived and labored 
most earnestly and continuously to save men 
from going down into the pit, found their inspira- 
tion and their weapon in the Word. How con- 
spicuously God sets forth the word as that through 
which he pours his converting power and loving 
grace ! Our Lord in the parable of the sower 
tells us that "the sower soweth the word." Isa- 
iah speaking as God's mouth says, "As the rain 
cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and 
returneth nor thither, but watereth the earth and 
maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give 






120 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

seed to the sower, and bread to the eater ; so 
shall my word be that goeth forth out of my 
mouth ; it shall not return unto me void ; but it 
shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall 
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. " When 
Jonah was sent to Nineveh God said to him, 
" Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and 
preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." 
We do not go a warfare at our own charges. 
God furnishes our equipment. Man must be 
born again; and they are "born again, not of 
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the 
word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." 
i Peter i : 23. Men must be converted, and 
"the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the 
soul." Psa. 19:7. Men's lives must be made 
clean, and that is accomplished by taking heed to 
God's word. Psa. 119 .-9. Men must be sancti- 
fied, and they are sanctified through the truth of 
the word of God. John 17 : 17. God's word is 
the chief instrument. It not only enlightens the 
mind, and reaches the conscience, and arouses 
the soul, but like God's eye it searches all the 
man, leaving no part in the dark. It pierces like 
an arrow into the depths of man's nature, and 
makes him feel that "all things are naked and 
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. 1 2 i 

to do." Heb. 4 : 13. Hence God's word has 
infinite suggestiveness, and reaches where man's 
word never could. Often ministers are astonished 
at the reach of the words they have spoken, and 
the way in which they have taken hold of men, 
convicting them of sins known only to themselves 
and causing them such uneasiness that they had 
to confess them. It was God's word unveiling 
the heart and causing the light of the Lord to 
search the soul. The best weapon the soldier of 
the cross can use is God's word, which is the 
sword of the Spirit. Ephes. 6:17. Enduring 
work is done by it, because it goes into the con- 
science w T hich is the deepest in man. And then 
only real work is done. To stir the emotional 
nature is not everything. There is many a hard 
heart behind a tearful face. Many a novel reader 
weeps over the misfortunes of hero and heroine, 
who never has a sigh for the real sufferers all 
around him. Touching stories well told may 
sweep tides of feeling over a congregation, like 
the wind bending in billows a golden wheatfield, 
but when the stories are told the feeling fades and 
the nature may be more callous than ever. The 
truth of God works differently. It is divinely 
adapted to our nature, and is as a nail in a sure 
place. It lives on and on, the incorruptible seed 



122 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

of the word. When man's word passes away like 
the morning cloud and early dew, God's word 
shines on still like the mighty and unminished 
sun in the heavens : changeless. He who wishes 
to build for eternity must build with God's word. 
The truth, the truth is what men need. What 
gives the wonderful and enduring charm to Fran- 
ces Ridley Havergal's books? The sweet Scrip- 
ture exposition that is in them. What made 
Boston's sermons so attractive that many walked 
long weary miles to listen to them ? Their pro- 
found views of divine truth. What is the preserv- 
ing salt and the marvellous stimulating ingredient 
in the sermons of Robert M. McCheyne? The 
loving interpretation of Holy Scripture. Wherein 
lies the charm and the brilliant power of Joseph 
Parker? His devotion to the word of God. 
Endless is the legion of honor, whose worthy 
names might be mentioned. 

The faith that saves is born in the heart of a 
man only through the word of God. It is the 
seed of the kingdom. " Faith cometh by hear- 
ing, and hearing by the word of God." That 
fact alone in the mind of an earnest man should 
wed him for ever to the word. This led Paul to 
preach the gospel, as he himself tells us, "not 
with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 123 

demonstration of the Spirit and of power ; that 
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of 
men, but in the power of God." The grand 
preachers of the Old Testament, the prophets, 
went forth with this formula : "The word of the 
Lord came to me, saying." And it is to be so 
still. Our old ministers often added to their 
names three letters, -"V. D. ML," marking a de- 
gree no university conferred, and yet the highest 
and best any minister can wear, "Minister of 
God's word " (verbi Dei minister). Their sermons 
are like Simon's house when Mary broke the beau- 
tiful alabaster-box of very precious ointment — full 
of the odor of the ointment. They make one feel 
that they delight in the law of God, and that it is 
within their hearts. 

William C. Burns, the apostolic missionary, 
was known in China as the "Man of the Book." 
During the time of the insurgent movements in 
the Amoy district, when no other European could 
venture out among the rebels, he was free to go 
where he liked. "That's the man of the Book," 
they would say, " he must not be touched." In 
confirmation of this love of the word on the part 
of William C. Burns, the Rev. Dr. Talmage, of 
the American Board of Missions, who knew him 
well, says, "His greatest power in preaching 



I 24 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

seemed to me to consist in the manner in which 
he quoted the Holy Scriptures. In this I do not 
think I ever heard him surpassed/' 

Brownlow North was celebrated for his adher- 
ence to the simple truth of the word. On one 

occasion Miss said, " Mr. North, you always 

send one back to the Bible," when he replied, 
"That's just it; there's nothing for any of us 
but the Bible/' 

Dr. W. P. Mackay, of Hull, heard him once 
in Edinburgh, when he said to his son in his own 
emphatic way, "If God's word says one thing 
and your heart says another, call your heart a liar 
and believe God." "I sat and pondered over 
these words," says Dr. Mackay, "and they 
opened up quite a fresh line of things to me." 
He also mentions that the fourth chapter of his 
book, ' ' Grace and Truth, ' ' was the fruit of the 
above sentence. So prolific is Scriptural preach- 
ing. Philip Henry, the father of the great com- 
mentator, resolved to "preach Christ crucified in 
a crucified style." So should everyone intrusted 
with the mysteries of the kingdom. And that is, 
in a word, Scripturally. He who honors God 
honors his word also. 

VII. With the Holy Ghost. This is a mat- 
ter of the greatest moment. It was of such 



THE TRUTH THA T SA VES. j 2 5 

immense consequence that our Lord, just before 
he ascended to heaven, enjoined upon his apos- 
tles whom he had called and commissioned to 
preach the gospel, that they should wait for the 
promise of the Father, which, saith he, "ye have 
heard of me." "For John truly baptized with 
water ; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
Ghost not many days hence." ... "Ye shall 
receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon 
you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in 
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and 
unto the uttermost part of the earth." This was 
necessary to fit them to preach. Already they 
had the Holy Ghost as the principle of spiritual 
life. But they needed more ; they needed a dis- 
tinct and definite enduement for service ; an en- 
duement that would make them bold and heroic, 
that would lift them above the fear of man that 
bringeth a snare ; an enduement that would en- 
lighten their minds in the knowledge of Christ, 
and give to them a sense of his presence such as 
would make them strong ; an enduement that 
would carry them forward like a vessel whose 
sails were filled with a favoring breeze, and which 
would brook no opposition ; an enduement that 
would arm them with grace, and sympathy, and 
patience, and love to the souls of men, so that 



1 26 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

they could truly say, "We seek not yours, but 
you. ' ' This every worker ;n the vineyard of the 
Lord needs. Our Lord had the Holy Spirit 
dwelling in him as his life ; but when he entered 
on his public ministry at his baptism he received 
a special enduement of the Holy Spirit — "the 
Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting 
upon him." Then we read, "And Jesus, full of 
the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and 
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness." This 
was the fulfilment of the promise in Isaiah 11:2, 
the promise of the sevenfold Spirit, as the Jewish 
commentators called it. "And the Spirit of the 
Lord shall rest upon him ; the spirit of wisdom 
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and 
might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of 
the Lord." Our Lord acknowledged this endue- 
ment when he read Isaiah 60 : 1 in the synagogue 
at Nazareth. He was anointed to preach the 
gospel to the poor, etc. And certainly if he, the 
Son of God, was thus prepared to preach, how 
much more do we need to be. We need a special 
enduement of the Holy Ghost for service. This 
is something more than conversion ; it is the ne- 
cessary qualification for service. We cannot do 
thorough and effective work without it. And 
therefore it ought to be well considered, deeply 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 



127 



pondered, clearly recognized, and continually 
acted upon. In the life of Christ we find it recog- 
nized not only in the synagogue of Nazareth, 
where he read the prophecy of Isaiah as fulfilled 
in himself, but in his work. "I by the Spirit of 
God cast out devils/' Matt. 12:28; " He 
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without 
spot unto God," Heb. 9 : 14 ; "The Spirit that 
raised up Jesus, "Rom. 11:9; "He through the 
Holy Ghost gave commandments unto the apos- 
tles," Acts 1:2. Being filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and having Him given to him without 
measure, John the Baptist witnesses, " The same 
is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." 
Our Lord's life and 1 ministry is to type that of his 
servants. Take the early history of the church — 
the Acts of the apostles — and note how perfectly 
the lives of the apostles are fashioned after his. 
They obeyed Christ's command, which is the one 
way of receiving this enduement, and on the day 
of Pentecost, after ten days' waiting, the Holy 
Ghost was poured out upon them, "and they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost," Acts 2 : 4, 
and so fitted for the work that lay immediately 
before them. This is the characteristic note of 
the Acts. We read of "Peter filled with the 
Holy Ghost," 4 : 8. "They were all filled with 



128 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

the Holy Ghost," 4:31. " Stephen, a man full 
of faith and of the Holy Ghost/' 6 : 5. Ananias 
said to Saul, "Brother Saul, the Lord, even 
Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou 
earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive 
thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost," 
9:17. "The disciples were filled with joy and 
with the Holy Ghost," 13 : 52. And as to the 
communication of the Holy Ghost we meet state- 
ments similar to this again and again: "While 
Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell 
on all them which heard the word," 8 144. Pe- 
ter in his first epistle tells the Hebrews to whom 
he writes that the apostles "preached the gospel 
unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven." 1 Pet. 1:12. Here we see clearly the 
relation of the enduement of the Holy Ghost to 
service. It is essentially necessary. The minis- 
ter of the gospel, standing between the living God 
and the dead sinner, is the divinely appointed 
channel of communication for the Holy Ghost. 
It was after the apostles were endued with the 
Holy Ghost, that as they preached the gospel the 
Holy Ghost fell on the people. This is surely a 
truth of the greatest importance for all Christian 
workers. It sets forth in a strong light their 
responsibility for thorough equipment. This is 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. i 2 g 

the all-necessary power. Learning is good, elo- 
quence is good, knowledge of human nature is 
good, but that which is of greatest value to a 
minister of the gospel is the enduement of the 
Holy Spirit. 

This sheds abroad the love of God in his heart 
and brings him into true and thorough sympathy 
with those to whom he speaks. It gives him the 
key to open their hearts, and to take possession 
of their spiritual being. This gives the spiritual 
understanding of the truth ; and unites his soul 
to it. It breaks the husk and lets him get the 
kernel. It goes beyond the outward letter to the 
inward spirit, and so arms the Word with con- 
victing power. How mighty is the word of a 
spirit-filled man ! Who can resist it ? It bears 
all along like the tide at flood. This makes a 
man faithful and fearless in his dealings with the 
truth, so that he is no respecter of persons. He 
deals with all in the name of the Most High God 
and for eternity. He looks not on the things 
that are seen, but at the things that are unseen. 
This unveils Jesus Christ, and so sheds light 
upon all his character that it glorifies him. He 
is seen as Emmanuel — God with us : as the Lord 
our Righteousness : as God over all blessed for 
ever. 

9 



1 30 THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 

This enables him to work in the light, with 
sweet assurance before God ; and with strong con- 
fidence in presence* of his fellow-men; and with a 
firm grip upon the exceeding great and precious 
promises which never fail of accomplishment. 

This alters the entire temper of his spirit, and 
imparts a new tone to his preaching, and invests 
him with a wholly new character. Now he rises 
to the realization of his being God's ambassador. 
And there is in him, through a true humility and 
unselfishness, a greatness and grandeur which 
make themselves felt. This teaching has come 
into great prominence of late years. It has been 
strongly emphasized, no doubt, by the need of it 
having been pressed home on the hearts of ear- 
nest men as they sought to bring their fellow- 
Christians into the glorious liberty of the children 
of God. But it has always been felt and acted 
on more or less clearly by soul-winners in all 
ages. Livingstone at the kirk of Shotts in 1630 
was reluctant to preach on the Thanksgiving 
Monday, and withdrew for prayer for the divine 
presence, because "he would not be alone in his 
work. ' ' What an answer he got ! Five hundred 
converts in one day. 

William C. Burns did not consider that he had 
a warrant to proceed in any sacred duty without 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 



131 



a consciousness of the divine presence (page 285 
of his Life). All who have been honored of God 
in service have rested their whole weight there. 
Unseen by mortal eye, unknown to human mind, 
they have waited and wept and prayed for power 
from on high : crying out with Moses, ' ' If thy 
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence/ ' 
Miss Mary Lyons of Mount Holyoke Seminary 
was wont to utter these two expressions worthy 
of passing into Christian proverbs : " How easy it 
is to work with the Holy Spirit/' "It is easier 
to obey God than any one else/' The more 
clearly this precious line of light is seen in the 
life of Christ, and in the history of the early 
church, the more will every earnest soul-winner 
be drawn to walk in it, and have fellowship with 
the Lord, in being filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and thereby equipped for efficient service. 



132 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 



VIII. THE JOY OF PREACHING THE 
TRUTH THAT SA VES. 

God has joined joy with the performance of 
every right act. And therefore, how much more 
with this act which has such far-reaching conse- 
quences. It is a seed which grows, not only in 
time, but in eternity. Its fruit will be enjoyed 
throughout the inconceivable millenniums yet to 
come. When we consider what it is in itself, 
what it is in its results and in its reach — we at 
once see the honor put upon us in permitting us 
to carry the good news of salvation to lost sinners 
of mankind. It is always pleasant to carry good 
news, even though they touch the most tempo- 
rary interests — the work of a day, the relations 
for a month or two — but what a joy it is to carry 
good news that changes the destiny of the soul 
and the character of eternity. What a joy it is to 
preach truth that brings a new life and makes all 
things new ! No joy can be comparable to that. 
No marvel that Paul proudly spoke of "making 
many rich/' 2 Cor. 6:10. No gift is greater than 
that the gospel conveys. None so enriches. 
None lasts so long. None confers such high 
and noble benefits. We are not astonished 



THE TR UTH THA T SA VES. 



*33 



therefore when the Rev. John Brown, of Had- 
dington, speaks in this strong way of the great 
privilege he had in preaching the gospel : " And 
now, after forty years preaching of Christ and his 
great and sweet salvation, I think that if God 
were to renew my youth, and put it entirely in 
my choice whether I would be King of Great 
Britain or a preacher of the gospel with 'the 
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven/ who had to 
beg his bread all the laboring days of the week 
in order to have an opportunity of preaching on 
Sabbath to an assembly of sinful men, I would by 
his grace never hesitate a moment to make my 
choice. By the gospel do men live, and in it is 
the life of my soul/' 

George Herbert, the quaint poet of the Epis- 
copal Church of England, in his ' ' Country Par- 
son" speaks of the pulpit as the minister's "joy 
and throne/' no doubt because of the delight he 
has in making known the gospel of reconcilia- 
tion. What a princely position he holds as an 
ambassador of Christ ! He preaches peace 
through the blood of the cross. He offers mercy 
upon the acceptance of Jesus as the one sacrifice 
for sin. He holds forth invitations to receive the 
gift of eternal life in God's Son without money 
and without price. He beseeches all to be rec- 



I 3 4 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

onciled to God on the ground laid down by 
Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and not 
for ours only, but for the whole world. He pro- 
claims an amnesty to all who will trust in Christ's 
atonement. He cries: "Through this man is 
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins ; and 
by him all that believe are justified from all things, 
from which ye could not be justified by the law 
of Moses." You trust in the law, and it con- 
demns you because you cannot perfectly keep it. 
You trust in Jesus, and he justifies you — dis- 
charges you from the guilt and penalty of your 
sins — because he bore their pains himself in his 
own body on the cross. What a joy it is to be 
in a position to make such an announcement ! 
George Whitefield on one occasion said : "The 
pleasure I have had this week in preaching the 
gospel I would not part with for ten thousand 
worlds." He felt he had a message to lost men, 
and the delivery of it was an intense joy. He 
often said : "Would ministers preach for eternity 
they would then act the part of true Christian 
orators, and not only calmly and coolly inform 
the understanding, but by persuasive, pathetic 
address endeavor to move the affections and 
warm the heart. To act otherwise bespeaks a 
sad ignorance of human nature, and such an in- 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 135 

excusable indolence and indifference in the 
preacher as must constrain the hearers to suspect, 
whether they so will or not, that the preacher, 
let him be who he will, only deals in the false com- 
merce of unfelt truth." He only rises to the gran- 
deur of his mission to whom eternity is present. 
Often David Brainerd cried : "Oh, I love to live 
on the brink of eternity in my views and meditations. 
This gives me a sweet, awful, and reverential 
sense and apprehension of God and divine things, 
when I see myself, as it were, standing before the 
judgment-seat of Christ. M 

The joy of the Christian worker is his strength. 
And out of it comes a sweet eloquence : a per- 
suasive eloquence : an eloquence, even though it 
may not be richly rhetorical, that carries captive 
the hearer. It is just as Quintillian observes : 
"It is the heart and mental energy that inspire 
eloquence." The heart rules. Into whatever a 
man puts his heart, that carries the day. And as 
we call upon men for heart-work, it must be 
heart-work with ourselves. 

This joy is to be our support in times of dis- 
couragement. It is to fill us with considerations 
that will enable us to rise above the dark clouds 
that meanwhile gather about us. The truth is 
not always attractive. Our Lord's congregation 



136 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 

on one occasion thinned out visibly, so that he 
said to his apostles: "Will ye also go away?" 
Paul sometimes gave offence in his declaration of 
the gospel. We hear him saying, "Am I there- 
fore become your enemy because I tell you the 
truth ?■" There are times that are not cheering. 
The light of sweet hope seems to die out of them. 
But the joy of the Lord, whose work we are doing, 
is to be our strength. Our work is not for to-day 
only, not for time only, but for eternity. We 
preach as Apelles painted, for eternity. We look 
not upon the things that are seen alone, but on 
the things that are unseen, for the things that are 
seen are temporal, and the things that are unseen 
are eternal. The seed dying might take all hope 
out of the heart of an inexperienced husbandman, 
but one who understands sees in that only a step 
toward life. So is it often with our discourage- 
ments. The darkness, and the apparent ruin 
that come are but stages of development toward 
the rising again of the seed of the kingdom in 
glorious power. We should always remember 
that it is the incorruptible seed of the Word. If 
the seed that has lain in the hand of an Egyptian 
mummy has life in it after three thousand years, 
how much more this precious seed ! It will not 
return to God void. 



THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 137 

Samuel Rutherford observes as he writes to his 
reverend and well-beloved brother William Dal- 
gliesh : " Our ministry, whether by preaching or 
suffering, will cast a smell through the world, 
both of heaven and hell. 2 Cor. 2 : 15, 16. I 
persuade you, my dear brother, there is nothing 
'out of heaven, next to Christ, dearer to me than 
my ministry. 7 ' That is the estimate of every 
faithful servant of God. The highest joy of his 
life is found there. It is to him the beginning 
of heavenly joy. How manifold is his joy ! He 
has joy in the truth itself. He delights in its 
love, in its light, in its life, and in its divine ex- 
cellencies. He has joy in declaring it to men. 
In handing them the gift of a spiritual revelation 
for their souls. He has joy in its renewing power 
upon the hearts and characters of men. He has 
joy in its far-reaching and eternal consequences, 
in the salvation of men and in the honoring of 
God. As there is joy in the presence of the 
angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, 
knowing what he is saved from, so there is joy in 
the minister's heart knowing what he is saved to. 
If the believing one rejoices with joy unspeaka- 
ble and full of glory, how much more he who is 
using the means toward such a high and glorious 
end. He can from his heart say : 



138 THE TRUTH THAT SAVES. 



' I love to tell the story 

Of unseen things above, 
Of Jesus and his glory, 

Of Jesus and his love. 
I love to tell the story 

Because I know it 's true ; 
It satisfies my longings 

As nothing else would do. 
I love to tell the story ; 
'T will be my theme in glory 
To tell the old, old story 

Of Jesus and his love." 



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